Top technology celebration

21 February 2011



New gravure printing systems demonstrated at Rotomec’s 50th anniversary Open House.


The 250 converters who travelled from 34 countries to attend the recent Rotomec 50th Anniversary Open House were treated to a display of high performance gravure printing and laminating demonstrations, at the company’s Technology Centre in S Giorgio Monferrato.

Star of the show was the debut of the new RS 4003 MP HS gravure press. This high speed version of the RS 4003 MP model has been developed to meet the increasing demand for versatile, easy-to-operate and cost effective equipment for medium to long runs and high volume production of high quality printed flexible materials.

As the new press can achieve a maximum production speed of 500m/min, the printing units feature a number of technical innovations developed to achieve optimum performance at high speed. These include: a new inking system and inking roller which enable uniform inking and low volume of ink in circulation; a new splash guard concept; and a new printing trolley design providing maximum flexibility and rapid change-over of the whole inking system and gravure cylinder or, alternatively, of only the gravure cylinder

Also innovative are the operator interface features, such as a touch panel on each print unit, which lights in the colour of the ink processed by that unit, as well as illuminated LED numbers that immediately identify the units in operation.

The RS 4003 MP HS press on show was also equipped with two additional features aimed at reducing time and material waste considerably: the TAPS (Total-Automatic-Pre-register-Setting) system and the new Smart Sample function for fast colour matching.

After the operator completed the job preparation on the printing unit, the TAPS sequence was started from the main console by a single pushbutton. TAPS works by reading a dedicated pattern printed on the web to move all cylinders into the in-register position. It takes only 4-5 min to complete the pre-register procedure on all printing units, and generates very little waste (less than 100m in each demonstration).

With the press now in register, the demonstration proceeded to show the efficiency of Rotomec’s new Smart Sample automatic function for fast colour matching. Again, the whole operation is performed by a single touch command: when the press reaches the colour matching speed, and is in register, the splice sequence starts automatically on the rewinder, providing the operator with the required colour matching sample.

This new function is said to be very effective in reducing the time and material waste generated by the colour matching process, enabling up to a 35% saving for each colour sampling compared with the conventional average for such a procedure.

The demonstration on the new press continued with an automatic splice at maximum press speed of 500m/min and was concluded with a display on a large screen of the machine consumption data for the printing demonstration. This highlighted the reduced levels of solvent concentration and exhaust air volume, as well as reduced thermal and electrical power consumption.

Rotomec says both TAPS and Smart Sample can be retro-fitted to existing machines.

Another new development unveiled at the open house was the Smart Shaft. This patented system, which can also be retro-fitted to all Rotomec gravure presses, speeds up and simplifies the cylinder shafting operation, with or without bushing.

Smart Shaft replaces a conventional shafting machine and is said to minimise splashes, even at high speed, and reduce the number of parts that require cleaning and maintenance, as it protects the shaft from crashes and ink penetration.

Also demonstrated was an 800mm web width MW 80 gravure press, printing a 6-colour job on a 20 micron BOPP substrate. The MW (Minimised Waste) press is dedicated to printing medium-web, very short runs and the demonstration showed how efficient it can be.

The TAPS function is integrated on all MW presses and the sequence was completed very quickly, again with very low levels of waste. The machine was then accelerated to its maximum production speed of 250m/min, also performing an automatic splice on the rewinder at full speed.

Rotomec’s latest laminating technology was also demonstrated by two machines during the event: the SL 850 solventless laminator and the CL 850 multi-technology laminator, both in duplex configuration.


Visitors view the printing demonstration on the RS 4003 MP HS press. Rotomec 1 Printing demonstration on the MW 80 (right) and RS 4003 MP HS gravure presses. Rotomec 2

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