A part on label stock (a stock of category Label stock that comes on a roll) is quoted as Roll labels on your digital label press (the route Digital label press) or your flexo press (the route Flexo label press, see Flexo labels). The quote plans how the labels sit on the web and how much web the press prints, and prices the run from the press's clicks or plates and ink, its time, the web it uses, the die and the finishing.
Set it up#
- Add a label press in Equipment: a digital press with Feed set to Web (roll-fed), with its frame, print width, web speed and click or ink costs (see Presses: offset, digital and label presses). Label parts are priced on the team's default label press.
- Add your label stock in Materials: category Label stock, form Roll, its width (the roll width) and side margin, priced per 1,000 in² (MSI), per ft² or per m².
- Optional: a label finisher in Equipment → Finishing (die-cut, slit and rewind), with its speed (best in metres per minute) and rates. With Core cost and Core price set, each finished roll adds a core.
Quote a label#
Add a sized part with the label's size (width across the web, height along it), its quantity and inks, and pick the label stock. The part moves to Digital label press by itself and gets its own card on the Production tab. Inks set the separations: 4/0 is CMYK, 4+White/0 is five separations with one special (white), 1/0 is one.
Label options#
Open the row's drawer for the Label section. An empty field takes the default.
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Gaps (in), across and around | The matrix between labels across the web and between rows along it (default 1/8 in each). |
| Per roll | Labels on each finished roll. Without it each lane is one roll. |
| Core (in) | The core's inside diameter, for the job ticket. |
| Wind | The wind position (1–8) the customer wants, for the job ticket. |
How a label is planned and priced#
- Lanes: as many labels across as fit the roll width less its side margins, no wider than the press prints and no more than its slitter cuts (Max lanes).
- Frames: on a press with a maximum frame, as many rows as fit in it; frames butt up on the web. An endless press prints the run as one frame.
- Rows = the quantity ÷ the lanes, rounded up. The finisher's waste adds rows, then the press prints whole frames plus the card's spoilage (2 % unless set).
- Press: the clicks, ink, time and makeready web of that run, worked out as in Presses: offset, digital and label presses.
- Stock: the web the press uses (the frames, plus its makeready web) × the roll width, in the stock's unit.
- Finisher and cores, and any finishing operations on the part.
The card lists each line with its time, cost and price, and the plan reads like "3 across × 18 around (38.25 in frame) · 190 frames · 605.62 ft of web · 3 rolls · 5 separations" (the web here is the frames, without the makeready).
Example: 4 × 2 in labels with 1/8 in gaps, 10,000 of them in CMYK and white on a 13 in roll (0.25 in margins), on a press with a 980 mm frame, 30 m/min in CMYK with the speed falling per separation, 15 m of makeready web and a $0.05 colour and $0.08 special click. That is 3 lanes and 18 rows a frame, 3,334 rows, 186 frames and 190 with 2 % spoilage. With the makeready web as 16 more frames, 206 frames of 5 separations are 1,030 clicks. The 199.6 m of web runs at 24 m/min: 18 minutes with a 10 minute setup. At $90 an hour, $0.60 per MSI of stock and no finisher, the press is $85.15, the stock $61.29 (102.15 MSI) and the line $146.44, about 1.5 cents a label.
Flexo labels#
Pick Flexo label press as the row's route (the Flexo roll label starter product starts on it). The part is planned on the team's default flexo press (see Flexo presses), or the card's press when you pick another flexo press.
- Lanes are worked out as on a digital press, no wider than the press's Max print width and no more than its Max lanes.
- Cylinder: the label goes round a print cylinder a whole number of times. The gap around starts at Gaps
(in) around and may grow by up to 1/8 in to fit a cylinder; of the cylinders in the press's repeat range (or the
ones you own), the one with the smallest gap wins, then the one with the fewest teeth. The production API's
plan_overrides.teethforces one (see Estimating API). - Colours: one station and one plate per colour of the front inks; versions add a plate set each.
- Press: the rows the quantity needs in whole cylinder turns, plus the card's spoilage, timed and charged as in Flexo presses (plates are their own line).
- Plates: colours × versions, each the print width × the repeat, from your platemaker, else the rate card for bought plates (see Tools and dies), else the press's Plate cost.
- Die: a new flexible die on the Flexible die (labels) rate card, one station a label (across × around).
- Finisher: a label finisher, when the team has one, slits and rewinds the rows; the die cuts on the press.
Two more options, in the drawer's Label section:
| Option | What it does |
|---|---|
| Die | On hand, else new (default): a label die on hand of the same shape and size, made for the chosen cylinder, is reused (the card says Die on hand); otherwise a new one is priced. New die always prices one; No die prices none. |
| Plates and die | Separate one-off (default) lists the plates and the die as one-off tooling on the quote; Included in the price adds them to the line. |
Example: 4 × 2 in labels in CMYK and white, 10,000 on a 13 in roll, on a press taking 140 to 610 mm repeats. Three labels go across and three round a 51-tooth cylinder (6.375 in, with an even 1/8 in gap). 3,334 rows need 1,112 turns, 1,135 with 2 % spoilage, and the 5 colours need 5 plates.
When it can't be priced#
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| No label press | Add one, or make a digital press roll-fed (Equipment → Presses). On the flexo route: add a flexo press. |
| Label press frame not set | The press charges clicks per frame but has no maximum frame length: set its Label frame and Max frame length, or charge it per metre or by area. |
| No roll width | Give the label stock its width. |
| Roll too wide for the press | Use a narrower roll, or check the press's Max sheet width (its widest web). |
| Label too wide | The label is wider than the press prints across the roll. |
| Label longer than the frame | The label and its gap are longer than the press's maximum frame. |
| No cylinder fits | Flexo: no print cylinder in the press's repeat range (or of your cylinders) fits the label with its gap. Add cylinders or widen the gap around. |
| Too many colours for the press | Flexo: the label has more colours than the press has print stations (Printing units). |
A press without an hourly rate, a web speed or a rate for its charge (a click, or ink per m²), or a finisher without speed or rates, prices at $0 for that step and is listed under missing rates. A label printing white or a special also needs the press's special rate: Click cost, special when it charges clicks per frame, Ink cost per m², each special when it charges by area. The card says which one is missing.