中文Grand Rapids Label, better known across the trade as GRLabel, has put a Durst Tau G3 Peak UV inkjet label press on its production floor, a purchase that grew directly out of the machine’s unveiling at Loupe Americas 2026 in September. The family-owned converter, now in its fifth generation and 142 years into its history, says the investment is the latest expression of a simple rule it applies to every equipment decision: will this make the company better for the customers it serves?
The Tau G3 Peak is a serious piece of hardware. It prints at a native 1,200 x 1,200 DPI and reaches speeds of up to 328 feet per minute (100 metres per minute), depending on configuration, across print widths of roughly 13 to 20 inches (338 to 510 mm). Its extended colour gamut adds orange, violet, green and white to the standard CMYK set, and it runs Durst’s Tau RSC UV ink, a chemistry the company positions for food, beverage and durable-goods applications. UV curing turns the ink from liquid to solid through photopolymerisation, which lifts resistance to abrasion, chemicals and outdoor exposure – exactly the kind of durability GRLabel wanted to put in front of its customers.
Material flexibility is broad. The press handles paper, film and foil across a wide thickness range, so the same platform can serve short-run premium work and longer industrial runs without a change of engine. That versatility matters to a converter whose order book spans many industries and many substrates.
Automation is where Durst has clearly pushed the G3 Peak. Durst ARC (Automatic Register Control) keeps colour registration correct in real time, while Durst MEP (Material Edge Protection) uses optical edge sensors and protective plating to shield the printheads and stretch uptime. Automatic printhead maintenance and intelligent monitoring are designed to minimise interruptions, and the built-in automation narrows the room for human error so that production stays consistent from the first label to the last. For a shop that prizes reliability, those features are as much a selling point as raw speed.
Scott Dobrowolski, director of continuous improvement at GRLabel, was unambiguous about the appeal. “The increased durability the Tau G3 Peak is going to allow us to have is super exciting,” he said. “The UV lamp’s ink curing capabilities is going to give us greater efficiencies and be able to run more effective jobs. Durst was definitely the right choice for our shop floor and we’re looking forward to our partnership with them.”
Bill Bergstrom, president of GRLabel, pointed to a wider set of reasons behind the choice. “Partnering with Durst makes perfect sense for GRLabel. Durst’s quality product, expert support, willingness to work with us to solve client challenges, and partnership with Cerm MIS, all lined up to make the choice easy. We look forward to a long relationship that pushes GRLabel to be better than ever.”
That Cerm MIS link is worth noting. GRLabel is not buying a press in isolation; it is buying into an ecosystem where job data, colour and finishing instructions flow cleanly from the management system to the press. In a market where converters live or die on turnaround and consistency, tight MIS integration is increasingly the deciding factor, not the optional extra.
The deal also says something about the label segment’s direction. UV inkjet has moved from a niche for short runs into a credible workhorse for converters that need durability, colour stability and fast changeovers. A 142-year-old, fifth-generation business choosing it is a neat symbol of how far the technology has come.
For Durst, the installation is another reference account in North America, where UV inkjet label capacity is still expanding. For GRLabel, it is a bet on giving customers more durable labels, steadier colour and less downtime – the unglamorous metrics that actually win repeat business.
Source: Labels & Labeling – “GRLabel purchases Durst press at Loupe Americas” (30 September 2026).
The wider lesson for the label industry is that press buys are now ecosystem buys rather than box buys. A converter weighing a UV inkjet platform is really choosing a partner for colour management, MIS connectivity and ongoing support, and GRLabel’s explicit nod to its Cerm relationship shows how much that integration now weighs in the decision. Five years ago a label shop might have evaluated a press on speed and price alone; today the question is how cleanly job data, colour and finishing instructions flow from the management system to the print head. That shift favours vendors who treat software as core infrastructure instead of an add-on. It also helps explain why a 142-year-old, fifth-generation business felt comfortable betting on relatively new UV inkjet technology: the maturity of the surrounding workflow ecosystem gave it the confidence to move. For Durst, reference accounts like GRLabel are how UV inkjet cements its place as a credible workhorse, not just a short-run novelty, across the North American label market.
