With the addition of a Gallus One to Dragon Printing’s existing fleet of high-performance presses, the Sydney-based business is stepping into a new era – boosting capacity, expanding capabilities, and reinforcing its position as a leader in premium label production.

With the new Gallus One Digital Press fired up at Sydney-based Dragon Printing, the company has entered a new phase – one that gives its clients even better options, while greatly increasing the workload the company can handle.

Investing in advanced technology is a signature move of Dragon Printing, keeping the business at the forefront of label manufacturing and enabling it to deliver an exceptional range of high-quality work.

Dragon Printing prides itself as a company that moves forward with the times, having shown a willingness to invest in innovation and give itself an edge over its competition. Already boasting a fleet of Gallus presses, there’s almost nothing it can’t do.

This has meant that the presses are fully loaded. Though it’s a good problem to have, it has created the need for faster, more agile systems that truly harness the power of digital press systems.

“Today, so much more of our work is suited for digital press systems,” explains Paul McCullum, director of Dragon Printing.

“We saw the need to alleviate the workload on our current presses, using them for more hybrid work. What we needed was a press that would fit with our existing systems well but also be a natural progression in terms of the work we are doing, where the market is heading, and still be able to deliver the standard of work we are known for.”

As with any significant investment, McCullum and the team at Dragon Printing did their due diligence, looking at multiple options from selected manufacturers.

“We did look at all the available presses that might suit our needs,” McCullum said.

“We have seen them running and know what they’re best suited for. We were obviously already very familiar with – and extremely happy with – the Gallus Labelfire presses that we have in operation. After speaking with Dierk Wissmann and the team at Gallus, and seeing what the Gallus One could do, we knew it was the right fit for our business and the work we need it to handle.”

Modularity benefits enhance flexibility

The Gallus One is a unification of all Labelmaster modules. The press is built around the idea of ‘modularity’, so that it can adapt to changing needs and market trends.

Businesses operating the Gallus One can easily add, remove, or replace units up and downstream, including flexo and screen printing, cold foiling, die-cutting, and more. This level of flexibility means print manufacturers can expand their services as their business grows, but without having to make significant investments in other types of printing systems and presses. It can all be done on the one press.

“A press with this level of flexibility is perfect for us because of the ‘hybrid’ work we do,” McCullum said.

“We handle a lot of cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, food, and wine labels that we do as one long pass on our Gallus Labelfire. At the same time, we are also running a lot of very simple jobs that are just die-cut and varnished. So, we now split the work between the systems, doing the more complicated jobs on the Labelfire, while the more straightforward jobs are done on the Gallus One. Because of the speed and print capabilities of the Gallus One, it will become the ‘workhorse’ of our operations.

“The options with the Gallus One are nearly endless. You can start your journey with a simple roll-to-roll configuration with CMYK+W and later expand the machine according to your needs.”

“The running speed of the press is one of the significant features that attracted our interest, and of course, we know the technology and we know the inks. We won’t be wasting valuable time colour-matching jobs; it’s a straight swap from one press to the other. We will achieve huge time savings because this press is an all-in-one process.”

The Gallus One can print up to speeds of 70m/min, even with high-opacity white of 85 per cent. With a printing width of 340mm or 430mm, the press can run a variety of self-adhesive materials such as papers, plastics, and unsupported materials.

As impressive as the stats are, it’s the modularity of the press that is really something special.

The dawn of a new era

“The Gallus One represents the dawn of a new era,” said Dierk Wissmann, national sales manager – Australia at Heidelberg Australia and New Zealand.

“The options with the Gallus One are nearly endless. You can start your journey with a simple roll-to-roll configuration with CMYK+W and later expand the machine according to your needs. This new ‘system to compose’ allows business owners to add to or change the composition of the machine system at any time of the journey.”

Options include the expansion of the colour gamut by adding orange and violet, flexo printing units, screen printing units, RDC Top, SDC ABG, and RDC quick die-cutting solutions, as well as a cold or hot foil, rotary embossing, web turn bar, de-lam re-lam, mono and PS laminating and MR touch.

“In Dragon Printing’s case, it is a Gallus One CMYK+W with a flexo unit for varnish or lamination, as well as a semi rotary die-cutting unit at the end. And of course, all of this comes with the highest print quality in 1,200 dpi by 1,200 dpi and at 70m/min – including white!” Wissmann said.

“The new Gallus One ‘system to compose’ allows business owners to add to or change the composition of the machine system at any time of the journey.

“In addition to high print quality, high speed, and high flexibility, to be truly successful, there is one more important piece of the puzzle – high machine uptime.

“We have taken everything we have learned from our clients using the Labelfire systems and poured all that knowledge into the development and design of the new Gallus One press.

“We have added new automated features such as automatic ultrasonic print-head cleaning, for example, to reduce downtime. The overall new design comes with many improvements to extend the life of vital parts and thus increase the machine uptime to a new level.

“In addition, Heidelberg Australia and New Zealand has a very strong service team on the ground, ready to jump in and offer support should it be required. Finally, there is no purging required; therefore nearly 100 per cent of the purchased ink is used to produce labels with virtually no ink waste.

“Which brings us to the final puzzle piece – high affordability. With its lower entry price, high quality, speed, and uptime, and nearly 100 per cent ink utilisation, the new Gallus One truly tears down the TCO barriers there might have been in the past.

“Driving the press is our market-leading Prinect workflow system from Heidelberg. This was jointly developed by Heidelberg and Gallus and combines the digital printing and software know-how of Heidelberg with the extensive expertise of Gallus in label printing. The Gallus One is the perfect solution for Dragon Printing who need a very fast, versatile press that still delivers exceptional print results.”

The abilities of the Gallus One press were not the only reason why Dragon Printing chose to re-invest with the company. The company has a strong partnership with Heidelberg and knows it can rely on service and support if, and when, needed.

“We’ve been dealing with Heidelberg for more than five years now,” McCullum said.

“Right from the start, we insisted that any servicing was done by Heidelberg, which it has done, and we always have access to online support. If we need to, we can always pick up the phone and speak to the team directly.

“For us, being able to rely on the manufacturer is extremely important because we cannot afford unnecessary downtime.”

Market competition, and the developing trend of shorter, more varied runs in faster time, means that label manufacturers such as Dragon Printing cannot afford downtime. They must be able to perform when the customer needs them and to a level that befits their reputation.

“Despite the capabilities we have and the results we can achieve, what we are really known for is our honesty,” McCullum said.

“Our customers deal with us because they know we are straight up. If there’s a problem, we will say it. With a press like the Gallus One, and the service and support we get from Heidelberg, we know we can promise our customers exceptional results with very short turnaround time.”

Minimal installation to learning curve time

The Gallus One has been up and running for a few months now at Dragon Printing’s Sydney headquarters. Finished jobs are already flowing because the installation time to learning curve was minimal as the Dragon Printing team was already familiar with the Labelfire press.

“We are very happy with how things have gone and the results we are getting,” McCullum said.

“The new Gallus One ‘system to compose’ allows business owners to add to or change the composition of the machine system at any time of the journey.”

“It hasn’t taken our people long to adapt to the new press because it shares some basic similarities with the Labelfire, and we are already very familiar with Prinect. You can certainly notice the speed difference; that’s something we are still getting used to. We can run a large volume of work through the Gallus One and still have room for more because it is so quick.”

The Gallus One represents a significant leap for digital press label manufacturing. The combination of speed, print quality, automation, and the ability to grow with the needs of the manufacturer, means Dragon Printing has the firepower necessary to handle any job.

Content and images supplied by Labels Plus Magazine and republished with permission.

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