Highcon Announces New Digital Die Cutting Solutions with Advanced Features for Mainstream Folding Carton and Corrugated Production
New Highcon Beam 3 offering improved quality and 50% increased production per shift, to be shown for the first time at drupa 2024
New large-format Vulcan[1], with a 1.4 x 1.7 sheet size, is taking shape in Highcon’s labs
Highcon has announced a new portfolio line-up ahead of drupa 2024, addressing the fastest-growing segments of paperboard packaging. Responding to a global market with continuously growing demand for smaller production batch sizes, faster delivery, increased sustainability and enhanced customer experience, the company’s new portfolio accelerates Highcon’s strategy of mainstreaming digital die cutting by focusing on productivity, efficiency and quality. The new portfolio line-up includes:
New Highcon Beam 3
For Folding Carton, the Highcon Beam 3 with optional new Beam Writer for offline writing of DART foils, will allow customers to produce around 50% more per shift than with Beam 2 - while delivering higher and more consistent quality[1]. The new Highcon Beam 3 is packed with innovations and enhancements that will allow customers to be more productive and address a broader range of applications. A converter will be able to run 10 jobs with an average run length of 1000 sheets every shift. This will typically drive an ROI for customers of less than two years in a two shift operation.
New Highcon Beam Writer
The new Highcon Beam Writer, compatible with all Highcon Beam systems already installed, enables customers to create creasing rules using Highcon’s proprietary DART system and 5th Generation Consumables offline. For every 100 jobs per month, Beam Writer can free up more than 16 hours of Beam capacity, or two full shifts, improving productivity and increasing capacity.
New Highcon Vulcan
- For corrugated packaging and display, the Vulcan, a revolutionary next-generation system with 1.4 x 1.7 (55” x 66”) sheet size, still under development, will enable the full benefits of digital die cutting to mainstream corrugated production. It supports boards up to 5mm, including microflute, B-, C-, and EB-flutes.
As product development started, four “Foundation Customers” including Thimm, The BoxMaker, UDS (Poland) and Grupak (Mexico), placed deposits on Vulcan systems in 2022. In 2023, Schumacher Packaging joined the Foundation Customer program and signed an MOU to purchase 5-10 units of Vulcan from Highcon before 2030.
Highcon is offering thought-leading customers the option to secure a finite number of early delivery slots. These slots will only be converted into binding orders following a successful production demo.
Upgraded Highcon Beam 2C
Based on a running speed that is ~15% faster[2], the upgraded Highcon Beam 2C offers higher productivity for corrugated customers with faster sheet throughput. When used in conjunction with the new optional Beam Writer, it will offer corrugated customers approximately 50% higher productivity per shift for typical customer job baskets. It also includes the Digital die cutting Workflow Package (DWP) for smoother, more effective and automated integration into a site’s production workflow.
[1] Internal R&D Codename – Not a commercial product name. Highcon will announce a commercial name for the product in the future.
[1] Actual increase depends on job basket; calculation for representative job basket.
