Xuzhou Jindian | 61Digital printing boosts growth at Xuzhou JindianXuzhou Jindian has invested in two Flora digital presses for small-to-medium-sized label orders, increasing the automation level across the whole company and improving overall production efciency. Yolanda Wang reportsstablished in 2011, Xuzhou Jindian is located in the Huashan Printing and Packaging Industry Park in Fengxian County, Xuzhou, Jiangsu Province. The converter mainly produces Elabels for electric bikes, electric cars, agricultural equipment and engineering machinery. Around 70 to 80 percent of these labels are self-adhesive, and the rest are mainly thermal transfer labels.‘Labels for electric vehicles account for a large part of our business,’ states Lv Weili, general manager of Xuzhou Jindian. This type of specialist label has to be highly durable, as they are primarily used outdoors. ‘This means, after experiencing signifcant variations in temperature and humidity, they still need to maintain good appearance and performance - no deinking, bulging, crimping, color fading or other changes are allowed. These all make us very careful when selecting raw materials, printing equipment and postpress fnishing equipment.’ Xuzhou Jindian started out with multiple sheet-fed screen Flora J-330s at Jindian Packpresses. These had the advantage of laying down a thick ink layer, and the inks were sun-proof and highly scratch-resistant.“My last scruple completely ‘Screen technology fts these durable labels very well,’ Lv Weili tells L&L. ‘But honestly speaking, the production effciency vanished when our frst batch of a sheet-fed screen press is relatively low. Coupled with continuous cost rises in raw materials, labor and workshop of labels produced by digital rental, and increasingly ferce market competition, our proft margin has suffered a big drop, and we urgently needed to printing received zero complaints address this dilemma.’After exhaustive investigations, he fnally decided to invest in from customers”UV inkjet digital printing technology. ‘Firstly, it can use sun-resistant UV inks, the same kind of ink whatever other properties they required.’as our screen presses, while maintaining the color consistency of This experience led Xuzhou Jindian to invest in its second the fnal printed products. Secondly, the thickness of the UV inkjet Flora digital press in early 2022 to meet growing demand for the ink layer perfectly meets the durability requirements for electric company’s products.vehicles. The last and most important reason is its high production Currently, digitally printed labels account for 10 percent of effciency. No need for platemaking, which has saved us plenty of the company’s total business. In the future, the company is time and resources. And the web-fed printing mode is much faster considering investing in a wider web-width UV inkjet press to than our previous sheet-fed screen printing technology.’ meet the production needs of large format labels. ‘Undoubtedly, In 2020, Xuzhou Jindian purchased its frst digital press, a Flora digital printing technology has become a key engine for our future J-330S UV inkjet label press. ‘I was a bit worried at the beginning growth,’ says Lv Weili.because Flora had launched this model not long before, and this was our frst experience with digital printing technology,’ recalls Continuous innovationLv Weili. Innovation is fundamental to the sustainable development of all ‘But my concerns were soon dispelled after a period of full-scale enterprises, and Lv Weili, who has been working in this industry production. We found that it fully met our expectations, and it is for 21 years, has a deep understanding of this. He worked in a highly accepted by brand owners due to its amazing printing quality Guangdong printing company in his early years and later started a and shorter lead time, which had been cut by more than half. Some company focusing on sales of printing consumables in Shenzhen.orders can be delivered even on the same day, which signifcantly During this period, Lv Weili discovered the huge growth potential reduces our time and labor costs. Moreover, the high performance- of the label printing industry and decided to enter the business. price ratio of the machine itself and the reasonable investment Looking at the high growth rate of the label market in East China, required for post-processing equipment, makes it very suitable for he decided to return to his hometown of Xuzhou to establish the enterprises like us, moving into digital for the frst time.’ Xuzhou Jindian label printing enterprise.Lv Weili says the advantages of a digital press became very clear Lv Weili acknowledges the label industry in China still faces during the Covid-19 epidemic when the supply chain was extremely many challenges. ‘We have seen both rapid development, then a unstable. ‘My last scruple completely vanished when our frst batch slowdown in the growth of the industry. We are also faced with of labels produced by digital printing received zero complaints from our customers currently de-stocking their inventories. We see customers, indicating that the performance of these labels had met great changes in customer requirements at the same time as we their requirements for UV-resistance, temperature resistance or must keep up with technological innovation and we face a high Oct - Dec 2023