中文Mark Andy chose its 80th anniversary to do something more persuasive than cut a cake. At Loupe Americas 2026 in Chicago, the press maker ran live demonstrations on three machines and a companion inspection rewinder, showing converters exactly how productivity gains convert into profitability rather than merely quoting specifications. Positioned at the entrance to the main hall, the booth was among the busiest throughout the three-day event.
The demonstrations deliberately spanned the technology spectrum — pure flexo, a flexo/toner hybrid and a flexo/inkjet hybrid — which Mark Andy says was the most live presses on show at the expo, supported by high-speed inspection and a new inventory management program from Mark Andy Print Products (MAPP). “Our technology has long focused on lowering cost by improving productivity and reducing waste. We’re able to deliver on this because of our partnerships and working with converters,” said Duane Pekar, CEO of Mark Andy.
The Performance Series S9 flexo press ran two jobs alongside the Rotoflex VLI inspection rewinder. The S9 is the sleeve version of the P9, a 26-inch press capable of running at 610 m/min, and was fitted with Momentum H3 dryers that reduce both energy costs and carbon footprint. The Rotoflex VLI matches that speed with a 40-inch unwind and two 24-inch rewinds, pairing press and finishing in a single, auditable workflow.
The DPro MAX, a compact and affordable hybrid aimed at short and medium runs, produced demo labels with CMYK toner, gold cold foil, gloss varnish and die-cutting in a single pass, and can be upgraded as demand changes. The DSHD HighSpeed 1200, which Mark Andy describes as the fastest narrow-web digital press in the world, returned to Chicago two years after its launch. Its demos showed a spot colour printed by flexo or inkjet on a semi-gloss substrate, and multiple versions of high-opacity digital white with automatically registered flexo varnish on a clear-on-clear substrate — underlining how digital and conventional can share the same job.
The headline numbers came from a single eight-hour shift on the DSHD: ten jobs totalling 873,000 labels. Compared with flexo, production time fell from 47 hours to eight, setup time from 34 hours to three, material waste by 83 percent and overall costs improved by 28 percent. Those figures are precisely the kind of evidence that moves the digital-versus-flexo crossover point and reassures converters weighing capital decisions.
Software rounded out the story. The latest ProWorx Label Suite provides a digital front end and analytics covering step-and-repeat, variable data, multiple-SKU planning and on-press colour management. MAPP introduced SupplySmart, an inventory program to simplify pressroom restocking, and ColorSmart, a system that standardises the interaction of production variables to deliver consistent, repeatable colour across jobs, presses, shifts and operators.
“Our message was ‘Proof of Productivity’,” Pekar added, explaining that converters who are not working on productivity every day put their business at risk. By running real jobs on the floor rather than staged demos, Mark Andy made the case that the next decade of narrow-web competition will be won on throughput, waste and total cost — not on headline speeds alone. A surprise appearance by Mark Andrews Jr. of the founding family gave the anniversary an extra lift.
Source: https://www.labelsandlabeling.com/news/conventional-printing/mark-andy-shows-productivity-loupe
The broader significance of Mark Andy’s showing is how it frames the hybrid press as the new centre of gravity in narrow-web production. For years, converters weighed a pure-flexo line against a digital press as a binary choice; the DPro MAX and the DSHD HighSpeed 1200, shown alongside the S9, make the case that the right answer is often a blend, with digital handling versioning and short runs while flexo absorbs the volume. The demo of a spot colour produced by either flexo or inkjet on the same substrate, and high-opacity digital white registered against flexo varnish on clear film, is exactly the kind of practical evidence that helps a converter decide where the digital-versus-flexo crossover sits for their own job mix.
That crossover point is moving. The DSHD’s eight-hour shift — ten jobs, 873,000 labels, 83 percent less waste and 28 percent lower cost than the flexo equivalent — demonstrates that high-speed digital has closed the gap on total cost for an expanding range of work. For converters, the implication is that capacity once reserved for flexo can shift to digital without sacrificing economics, freeing flexo for the longest, most demanding runs and smoothing utilisation across the plant.
The software layer is what makes the hardware credible. ProWorx Label Suite’s analytics — step-and-repeat, variable data, multi-SKU planning and on-press colour — turn the press into a managed production asset rather than a standalone machine, and MAPP’s SupplySmart and ColorSmart address the mundane but costly realities of restocking and colour consistency across shifts and operators. Pekar’s “Proof of Productivity” theme was, in effect, a claim that Mark Andy can reduce the variability that erodes margin, and as the company enters its ninth decade that message may be its most durable one.
