Gallus | 55Gallus launches roll-to-roll digital press The new Gallus One press forms part of a wider program to reinvent the label industry’s view of digital printing. Andy Thomas-Emans reportsallus is looking to drive a digital transformation in the “The Gallus One is a true joint label industry with the launch of a standalone digital press Gtargeted at the mid-market sector.development with Heidelberg Based on the Labelmaster platform, the Gallus One is a 340mm wide roll-to-roll UV inkjet press printing at 70m/min at 1,200 DPI which brings together decades of in four colors + White. The press retains many of the advanced features of the Gallus Labelfre 340 including full automated Heidelberg expertise and Gallus’ cleaning of inkjet heads and a camera-based missing nozzle and history of developing world class density unevenness compensation system.While the Gallus Labelfre 340 remains Gallus’ premium digital narrow web press technology”platform, the company believes the Gallus One, with its compact footprint, high level of automation and ‘extremely competitive price’, addresses a major gap in price performance sector of the fexo and offset and now digital. And now we will reinvent ourselves label market. for the new technology out there. But the next curve for us is an ‘The whole technology of the new press is based on the ecosystem, not just a technology.’ experience of the fagship Gallus Labelfre 340 and with focus on the highest level of reliability and availability,’ says Dario Urbinati, Joint developmentChief Sales & Service at Gallus. ‘We see signifcant interest from Urbinati says that the extensive digital expertise of Heidelberg has the small family-owned business market and as a replacement for been central to the development of Gallus’ digital platforms. legacy letterpress and fexo technology, but also from multinational ‘We are drawing on in-depth digital expertise in printhead groups looking for standardization.’ waveform design from Heidelberg, digital ink development, Urbinati believes the label industry is at the beginning of a new workfow software and testing facilities. The Gallus One is a era in which the success of digital printing will depend on solid TCO true joint development with Heidelberg which brings together (Total Cost of Ownership) foundations. decades of Heidelberg expertise and Gallus’ history of developing ‘There is an expectation gap between what digital presses have world-class narrow web press technology. In this project we have promised and what they have delivered. We want to bridge that learned a lot about how Heidelberg and Gallus can work together gap. The digital conversation needs to move to a visionary level and with all our joint competence in house.’away from talking about machine specifcations. We are moving The close bond between Heidelberg and Gallus is represented by away from making a sheet of metal to selling an entire ecosystem – Dr. Frank Schaum, who became CEO of the Gallus Group in 2020 the press is the tool to turn data into something tangible.’ after a career spanning 30 years at Heidelberg in a range of roles Urbinati believes that Gallus, as one of the founding companies from engineering to transformation management. of the narrow web industry, has a responsibility to help transform Schaum is keen to stress the full commitment of the Heidelberg the market. group to Gallus. ‘Gallus has a history of reinventing itself – from letterpress to ‘After a comprehensive realignment Heidelberg is back on track The Gallus One digital press built on the Labelmaster platformJul - Sep 2022