Home Latest News KURZ: Sustainability as a key topic for the future of the print finishing

KURZ: Sustainability as a key topic for the future of the print finishing

by Matthew Callahan

This year, the core themes of drupa included sustainable printing processes and packaging, the circular economy and energy efficiency. Like many industries, the printing and packaging industry faces the major challenge of continuously improving its environmental footprint.

LEONHARD KURZ has been a pioneer in this field for years and has always striven to make its embellishment solutions more efficient and sustainable. This is why the specialist for thin-film technologies presented many innovative technologies, processes and materials for environmentally friendly embellishment at the show.

‘Design and Sustainability. Sharing one Future’ – under this motto, KURZ showed that these two factors do not have to stand in the way of each other, but rather complement each other. Sustainable embellishment with thinner carriers KURZ consistently focuses on saving valuable resources and recycling them. An important step in this process is the introduction of thinner transfer carriers for the embellishment of printed products.

In the area of hot stamping, KURZ will soon only offer transfer carriers with a thickness of 10 µm. In cold transfer, the carrier thickness will even be reduced to 6 µm – all while maintaining the same brilliance and opacity. The products finished with KURZ embellishments remain completely recyclable and deinkable; the composting process is also not impaired by the thin decorative layer.

At drupa, KURZ also presented the KPS slim 2.0 (patent pending) technology alongside the classic hot stamping LUXOR®/ALUFIN® decoration range. With a transfer carrier only 6 µm thick, it is the thinnest transfer product available on the market and enables a significant reduction in PET content by an impressive 50%. By using KPS slim 2.0, not only can considerable material savings be achieved, but also more efficient handling thanks to more running metres per roll, which leads to fewer roll changes and less downtime and set-up time. The end result on the printed sheets is an unparalleled gloss – even on the most challenging surfaces and difficult substrates.

“The introduction of thinner transfer carriers is an important step in KURZ’s sustainability strategy,” explains Markus Hoffmann, Member of the Managing Board. “We are continuously expanding our portfolio with sustainable products and solutions that reduce the use of materials and minimise environmental impact. This also includes the ‘reuse’ approach – i.e. the possibility of using transfer carriers several times by means of newly developed modules and making full use of free space.”

Caption:

Samples displayed on the KURZ stand at drupa

More information on KURZ products can be found here

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