Union Label Industries goes Digital with AccurioLabel 230

About Union Label Industries

Established in 1994, Union Label is a label converter who has been in the label printing industry for more than 27 years. Over these years, Union Label supplies its products to electronic, logistics, F&B, petrochemical, cosmetic and printing industries. Specialising in self-adhesive label printing on a wide range of materials including product labels, temper resistant labels, pharmaceutical labels etc, the company produces these high quality printed / blank labels which are both Underwriters Laboratories (UL) and Canadian Standard Association (CSA) approved labels recognised by large multinational corporations.

Union Label constantly searches for innovative ways and technologies to custom print labels and decals for a wide variety of market segments.

Union Label Industries has upgraded to digital print capability with the recent acquisition of the Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 230 (AL230) digital label production press from RHS Asia. The AL230 is Konica Minolta’s third-generation label press, delivering significant improvements in productivity, flexibility, stability and speed to ensure Union Label stays competitive in the rapidly changing label market. This investment complements Union Label’s business, who already owns a fleet of intermittent-rotary label printing machines and letterpresses.

Union Label has established a strong foothold in the label printing market with a fleet of Sanki label presses from Japan.

Embracing the Digital Era

Headed by directors Mr. Lee K.H. and Mr. Davis Jiang, Union Label was looking for a reliable system to meet growing customer needs for shorter-run jobs and quick turnaround times.

Mr. Lee said, “We have been exploring new opportunities to produce high quality labels that can meet tight timelines and to solve customers’ needs for short to medium-run print jobs. And we know that it is only a matter of time that we must go digital. The label printing market is evolving and so must we.”

Having evaluated various options over the years, Mr. Lee decided to expand its production capability with the investment in the Konica Minolta AL230 digital label press. The AL230 is a high-speed digital label press that has an operational speed of 23.4m/min. One of its strength lies in its ability to print on a wide range of substrates such as coated/uncoated papers, PP and PET media.

Mr. Lee said, “The AL230 allows us to handle different types of substrates without any priming. As a result, we can serve new markets without raising our costs or increase production time. From an operational perspective, the AL230 label press can print variable data such as barcode labels, and commercially the price of maintaining and operating the AL230 is sustainable.”

In addition, the AL230 is perfectly suitable for Union Label’s expansion needs. It provides a new overprint kit with eye mark sensor so digital print can be accurately registered to pre-printed jobs coming off the label presses. The AccurioLabel Impose software and RIP also allow for faster file preparation for variable data.

Mr. Davis Jiang (L) and Mr. Lee K.H. (R) on their newly installed Konica Minolta AL230 digital label production press.

RHS Asia Sales Director, Mr. Eric Lee, said “ROI is important. Customers want a digital label press that is economically viable and can also deliver the performance of higher-end presses.”

“Whether it is in Konica Minolta’s showroom or at customer’s site, reliability, quality and consistency are what we see from the Konica Minolta AL230.”