No Skilled Operators Needed
Flexo shops are familiar with presses that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, or in some cases, upwards of a million dollars, and require a skilled operator to run the press. The average salary for an entry-level flexo press operator in the US is $30,000 (simplyhired.com). Add those together and one must generate hundreds of dollars in margin every hour to be profitable.
Contrast that with our an entry-level, Memjet-powered L801 Color Label Printer (less than $10,000) that can print 14,400 4×6″ pre-cut labels per hour (at less than $0.04 per label). Since flexo companies are so used to requiring skilled operators, they may ask, “who will run this machine?” The answer is simple: it can be run by an administrative worker with very little training.
Digital Label Press
If flexo shops are looking for an in-line, end-to-end digital solution, the DLP-2000 might be more fitting. For the DLP (which includes an L801 printer), to set up the machine, you will need someone who can load the label stock into the printer and feed it into the finisher, and who can load laminate and feed the liner (if you use “low noise”) to the take-up reel. They will also need to load the rotary die, do a test run, attach the matrix to the take-up reel, set the slitters, and load the finished labels on the take-up reel. All in all, it’s a fairly simple process that can likely be carried out by a current employee who is running a flexo press.
