Hybrid Software has demonstrated its continued innovation to boost productivity and improve the competitiveness of its customers by highlighting software’s role in driving production efficiency.
The company returned to help converters face the challenging times and a perfect storm of high prices for energy and substrates, a shortage of skilled labour, and higher interest rates that make capital equipment purchases more difficult.
Hybrid’s CloudFlow software is used for workflow automation by thousands of label printers and converters worldwide.
According to the company, the industry consolidation has resulted in many printers with multiple printing locations, so centralising pre-press automation in the cloud provides a real advantage.
MyCloudFlow delivers all the power of CloudFlow in a multi-tenant workflow solution hosted in the AWS cloud and managed by Hybrid Software to provide ease of use and extreme performance scalable on demand.
It has been developed not only for multi-site printers; even smaller label companies can benefit from lower infrastructure costs, with no servers to purchase or local IT support required, and implementation taking just a few hours.
True workflow automation requires a tight link between workflow and MIS/ERP systems so that the parameters for an order can be used to create the job layout and drive plate-making systems or digital presses.
At Labelexpo, Hybrid highlight MyCloudFlow’s turnkey integrations with Cerm, Label Traxx and Radius, the leading MIS systems used in labels and packaging.
The company also demonstrates a significant release of Packzimizer for automated lane planning of label repetitions for digital print production as well as stacked label imposition for sheet-fed, cut-and-stack label production.
Hybrid says that with many label converters producing shrink sleeves and in-mould labels, 3D modelling has become an essential pre-press tool for the label industry. Therefore, the company integrated recently acquired iC3D technology into Proofscope for high-quality 3D-rendering of labels and shrink sleeves, including photorealistic ray tracing and visualisation of embellishments.
Hybrid Software has continued to innovate with many new capabilities in the Packz editor. New technology Content XML provides data-driven creation of labels and packaging by inserting text, graphics, and other design elements dynamically from an asset database. This is especially useful for creating multiple label copies in different sizes or languages and managing nutrition facts and ingredient panels. Still, it can be extended for many other complex label applications.
Packz Advanced Colour uses technology from our ColorLogic division to provide an accurate snapshot of printed artwork under various printing conditions, including different spot colour strategies. The feature is designed to help label and packaging producers accurately reproduce brand colours using the fewest number of inks and the least amount of each ink to achieve the lowest production cost. Once the spot colour strategy has been selected, it can be applied automatically using MyCloudFlow for all future instances of that colour.
Hybrid’s variable data printing (VDP) software has also been enhanced for easier preparation of variable data labels for digital printing. Its output format is standard PDF, compatible with any RIP, but optimised for its Harlequin RIP.
For analogue printing, Hybrid is showcasing a variety of print samples from its new Velvet Screening, the next-generation hybrid AM/FM screening technology for flexo, which provides unprecedented control of highlight dots and smoother gradations on all types of flexo plates, even at lower output resolutions.
Velvet Screening can also be combined with Intelligent Flexo, the surface screening solution for high-quality flexo printing across various plates and substrates.
Hybrid Software executive chairman Guido Van der Schueren said, “Labelexpo Europe is our most important show in 2023, and it never disappoints. This year’s show is even more significant for Hybrid Software as it’s the last time the show will be held in our country, so we’re pulling out all the stops to provide a meaningful experience for our customers and visitors at the show.
“The label industry has always been a very important segment for Hybrid Software, and we work closely with our customers to provide software solutions that increase their production efficiency. I’m looking forward to demonstrating the results of our continued innovation.”
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