EGP partnership certificate to OptiPack

In the picture, from the left: Magne Steen, Jonas Furtemark, Ulrik Fauhlér, Jörgen Nilsson, Annica Lundkvist and Niklas Persson

EGP partnership certificate awarded to OptiPack 

The Swedish leader in high-quality printed paper packages, OptiPack, has received Sweden’s first EGP™ certificate. The Expanded Gamut Printing certificate was awarded as recognition for implementing a modern, more environmentally friendly and high-quality flexo printing process. The certificate was awardedby Marvaco, the pioneer in EGP™ technology.

OptiPack has had a long-term goal to improve flexo printing efficiency and ecology. The company owners were convinced of the efficiency of process color printing in 2018, and decided to invest to the SOMA Optima2 flexo press due to its proven ability to successfully utilize the EGP process in packaging printing for brand owners. In collaboration with its prepress partner, Marvaco, and ink supplier, Siegwerk, OptiPack has comprehensively implemented EGP technology during the past 18 months. This helps the company to reduce the environmental impact of the printing process, by minimizing the use of inks and process cleaning between jobs.

Ulrik Fauhlér, Managing Director of OptiPack, says that with EGP the company has been able to streamline production and can compete against low cost printers in other countries by being much more efficient and leaner. With the EGP process, it’s possible to print four designs side-by-side, and avoid three extra set-ups with cleaning, waste and down time on the machine. This has reduced down time by 27% on the designs that are produced with EGP versus traditional CMYK + PMS. It means that each printing machine can produce more square meters with the same staff.

Moreover, the contact proofs are matching the print result so well that customers have been able to avoid on-site press acceptance, which has been especially beneficial during the Covid-19 quarantine. With the EGP process, print production becomes more flexible and efficient, when the time required to switch jobs is minimized. It also enables faster client deliveries—as needed in these times.

The Norwegian brand owner Sørlandschips has used EGP technology with OptiPack for about a year and is delighted that the design-specific colors of the packages are no longer restricted by the number of color units in the printing press. Instead, the richness of the decorations’ shades can be enhanced while ink consumption is reduced. The new technology also enables gang printing of different products, which helps reduce waste and the resources used even further.

“The EGP certification of Marvaco requires that the production quality and performance of the printer is verified by examining several works of different brand owners’ packages,” says Kai Lankinen, Executive Partner of Marvaco. He adds that the certificate proves OptiPack’s ability to implement uniform printing, batch after batch.

Jonas Furtemark, Marvaco’s Sales Manager, says that the EGP technology enables high-quality, efficient and greener package printing with no need for spot colors. The predictable and precise brand colors are implemented with digitally assisted ink blending. The color gamut is enriched with additional OGV (Orange, Green, Violet) process inks, which doubles the number of color shades compared to the Pantone+ color series. Even bright shades are implemented cleanly. With EGP’s digital color separation, brand colors that have been restricted in the past by only CMYK can be implemented in a nearly unrestricted, more controlled and more precise manner.

Nordic brand owners and printing companies have been forerunners in using greener EGP technology, and the number of grocery packages produced with this technology is increasing rapidly in Scandinavia. From now on, packages printed with EGP will also include the distinct GreenerPrinting™ label, which signals that the packaging has been printed more ecologically. 

Further information:

Ulrik Fauhlér
Managing Director
OptiPack AB
ulrik.fauhler@optipack.se
www.optipack.se

Jonas Furtemark
Sales Manager
Marvaco
jonas.furtemark@marvaco.com
www.marvaco.com                     

Kai Lankinen
Executive Partner
Marvaco
kai.lankinen@marvaco.com
www.marvaco.com

Keywords: Expanded Gamut Printing, Extended Gamut, Fixed Color Palette, EGP, ECG, FCP, XG, Flexo, Offset, Packaging, Greener Printing, CMYKOGV, Brand Colors

Tags: #HiQ_EGP #Flexo #Packaging #EGP #ExpandedGamut #GreenerPrinting #CMYKOGV #BrandColors #ECG