Orora Beverage is installing the region’s first Velox digital, high-speed, full-colour, can printing system, enabling customisation of can design and decoration, and fast speed to market for new products and promotions.
The first digital printer will be installed at Orora’s can production facility in Dandenong, where Orora currently decorates cans with traditional high-speed offset decoration processes. The two processes – offset and digital – will run side-by-side.
Orora signed an agreement to supply its direct-to-shape solution with Velox. Orora is purchasing Velox digital printers, inks, and consumables. Orora is already marketing the new service under the name Helio by Orora. Cans are increasingly used in beverage packaging, in part because of the ability of aluminium can be recycled almost endlessly.
Velox says that its DTS direct to shape solution uses two proprietary technologies: Variable Viscosity ink and Adaptive Deposition Architecture, which it claims will print full colour images and text directly on any shape or material.
The company says its Adaptive Deposition Architecture is an innovative approach, designed for high-speed, high-accuracy, transfer of ink to container surfaces, at almost any speed, delivering “high resolution images and precise colour matching”.
Variable Viscosity Ink is a specially formulated family of digital UV inks that the company claims delivers “unprecedented printing quality and versatility”. The company says the tech minimises the trade-off between print quality and ink coverage efficiency, enabling versatile decoration, and “exceptionally vivid and intense process colours with controlled opacity”, any container material or coating.
Velox states that inks have improved adhesion as well other functional properties like low migration, scratch resistance and heat resistance.
Chris Smith, General Manager Orora Beverage Cans said Print21 Digital printing will complement offset printing and provide a faster turnaround time from design to completion, as the printing plates no longer need to be produced.
Smith stated that the Velox technology would provide greater operational flexibility by allowing for smaller minimum quantities and reducing overproduction of inventory. He’s quick to note that the application of this technology is not restricted to short runs. The ability to randomise indefinitely allows large-scale activations.
The introduction of Helio adds to the company’s significant investment in cans capacity expansion – in June this year Orora completed construction of an $80m multi-size can line at the Dandenong site.
The new line, which increases production capacity by around 10 per cent, and allows for the manufacture of varying can sizes and formats, combined with the high-speed Helio digital print capability, strengthens significantly Orora’s position to meet the surging growth in demand for beverage cans.
Smith said, “This digital decoration solution will complement and capitalise on the investment at Dandenong, signifying a step change to our leadership in can decoration. This technology will complement our existing expertise in pre-press and innovation.
“We have been assessing the development of direct-to-shape digital decoration technology for cans for some time,” he added.
“Velox has proven capability and holds numerous patents for this technology. Orora has worked with Velox to review trial materials and inspect machines at its site in Israel.”
Installed in June of next year, the new line should be running by third quarter. Smith explained that Orora launched Helio because they are already in discussions with brand owners about summer campaigns next year.
“Our role in primary packaging is to help our brand owners engage the shopper at the point of purchase. Helio and the Velox solution will transform our ability to do this for our customer’s brands,” he said.
“Once commissioned, what this means for our customers is that wait time will be significantly reduced in delivering a specific can size or label design for activities such as promotions, new products and limited-edition retail events. With no label set-up required and near-immediate supply, shorter, faster minimum runs can be accommodated, providing greater flexibility in product and campaign planning.”
Commenting on growth in the aluminium cans market, Smith said, “We are seeing the demand for aluminium cans continue to grow, with particularly exciting developments across a number of categories including craft beer, soft drinks, RTDs and seltzers. Cans are a terrific sustainable, packaging option, convenient for many occasions and most importantly, produced from aluminium containing recycled content, with the can itself being infinitely recyclable.”
Can production capacity continues to be invested in. In March, a $30m expansion project at Ballarat to expand the capacity of can ends was completed. A new $85M line is under construction at Revesby in NSW and will be ready by Q1 2025.
Smith said, “We know that can graphic design and decoration is a critical tool for engaging consumers – with strong in-house can decoration capability, the Helio solution enabled by high-speed, direct-to-shape digital printing, adds even greater value to Orora’s service offering for its customers.”
Velox was founded by Marian and Adrian Cofler a decade before. Two years later it built its first prototyping system, and in 2017 a beta version was operational. It installed its first tube-printing system the following year. In 2021, it joined forces with Crown Holdings in order to develop digital decoration of aluminium necked cans.
Velox represents yet another innovation by Israel. HP Indigo, Highcon die cutters and digital embellishment systems, Landa nanotechnology, Kornit DTG, are just a few of the many new technologies based in Israel.
Velox’s advisory board is led by Dr Petra Severit. She is the CTO of Altana Coatings, which owns a large stake in Landa and, since 2018, a stake Velox. Altana, owned by Susanne Clatten, Germany’s richest woman, is estimated to be worth US$26bn.