Tonejet has claimed its new 172mm-wide digital printhead will bring "substantial logistics and cost savings" to the packaging industry.

The printhead, which has been trialled with packaging companies, is the widest available for an industrial digital printer, and the firm said it would enable food and drinks packaging to be printed in a single pass.

Director Guy Newcombe said that although each packaging type had its own requirements, firms all looked at the three key areas of "quality, throughput and cost".

"The Tonejet system ejects a very concentrated ink to produce a high-quality image on every kind of packaging material," he added.

He said digital printing removed the need for labels on curved and uneven surfaces and enabled greater customisation of products.

"It opens up new design possibilities for branding and marketing professionals who can now have free rein over how their products are marketed," he added.

Tonejet is part of The Technology Partnership, a technology development and licensing company based in Cambridge.