During IPEX 2002 in Birmingham, UK, St. Louis-based pressmaker Mark Andy ordered two dotrix (Ghent, Belgium) SPICE units—the base system of the.factory digital-printing equipment—for integration into the company's 2200 label press. Mark Andy will use one press as a demonstration machine at its headquarters; the other has gone into beta testing at label converter Stralfors Gothenborg in Sweden.

Stralfors has been involved in digital printing for six years with two Xeikon DCP 32 S units. "We wanted a press specifically designed for high-speed label production," says Stralfors project manager Richard Aden, speaking of the Mark Andy system. "Thanks to the combination of the ink-jet SPICE unit and the flexo modules, the Mark Andy 2200 achieves results much more akin to screen and flexo labels."

The dotrix SPICE units are reportedly seamlessly integrated into Mark Andy's flexo-label presses with modular flexo units in front and behind. The 330-mm wide flexo/ink-jet press prints fully variable data in up to six colors.