Waste down output up

7 July 2008



Rotomec’s ‘Minimized Waste’ (MW) concept yields increased printing productivity for leading Dutch flexibles converter


Further to the installation of the first 12 colour Rotomec MW 60 gravure printing press in December 2006, leading Dutch converter Zwart performed a year-long study to evaluate and optimise the productivity of the press. Following exceptional results, Zwart has just ordered a second Rotomec MW 60 gravure machine.

Established in 1929 in Amersfoort, in central Netherlands, Zwart has a long history in gravure printing and converting flexible materials, with a client list including ‘blue chip’ multi-national companies like Unilever, Kraft, Sara Lee and important private label food brands as well.

A privately owned company at the forefront of the packaging industry, Zwart specializes in the production of top end gravure printed and converted materials to meet the latest marketing trends in food and non-food packaging. This includes film and paper packaging and labels, which increasingly require multiple sizes and design variations within each given product – and are often printed in short or very short production runs.

Integrating much shorter print jobs into conventional presses can be a very challenging proposition for the profitability of business operations, so when Zwart decided to invest in a new gravure press in 2006 the company knew that to fully satisfy its very stringent productivity requirements, it would have to consider a more ‘unconventional’ approach to short run gravure printing technology.

The company’s needs coincided with the launch of Rotomec’s brand new development: the MW 60 press which addressed specific benefits in short run gravure printing through innovative press design and automation for ‘Minimized Waste’ (MW).

“After careful consideration, we opted for the new MW technology because the technical solutions devised by Rotomec to implement their Minimized Waste concept in the overall machine operation appeared to be extremely efficient,” explains Harry Sieljes, managing director of Zwart.

The extensive experience of Zwart in gravure printing flexible packaging materials made an important contribution towards Rotomec adapting several design concepts of the MW press.

“Doing profitable business in the short run market requires minimum press downtime, as every additional minute of downtime has a considerable impact on daily job scheduling, in a sector which demands very fast turnarounds and increasingly shorter lead times,” Harry Sieljes continues. “The other fundamental aspect is being able to produce efficiently with the lowest possible waste.”

Zwart’s 12-colour Rotomec MW 60 gravure press, with a 600 mm web width, was installed in December 2006 in a new 1550m2 production facility, as the company’s investment programme also included an extension to the factory in Amersfoort.

For the new MW 60 press, the company defined two ambitious targets to be achieved in comparison to the productivity of its existing presses: a 50 per cent reduction of job change-over time and a 50 per cent reduction of waste during printing.

Zwart knew that for the new press to be used in the most efficient way, the work flow must be organized accordingly and in January 2007 it started a one year project aimed at assessing and optimising productivity on the MW 60, in collaboration with Rotomec and a Dutch consultancy (Kenniscentrum GOC).

A press time registration and reporting system was developed and implemented on the MW 60 and Zwart’s existing gravure printing presses were taken as a benchmark for average job change-over time and waste generation.

“Accurate and relevant figures were available from May 2007, when the reporting system became operational, the operators were fully conversant with the new technology and the MW 60 was operated on a three-shift basis,” Harry Sieljes explains.

“The results of the project now show that both targets have been fully attained. On the MW 60 the effective press production time has increased by an average 67.5 hours/month, representing a 56 per cent reduction of press downtime calculated from the machine stopping at the end of one order – and production re-starting for a new order,” he confirms.

“As for waste, calculated as the difference between the gross and net metres of printed material, the register and colour matching waste percentage on the MW60 was 8.8 per cent compared with an average 17.6 per cent on our conventional presses, or 50 per cent less,” he says. “This is due to the superior performance of the Rotomec/Registron register control system and the press stability,” he adds.

“Meeting the two targets has delivered a cost saving of up to u300,000 per year. Furthermore, by using the time saved in job change-over operations as extra production capacity, we can expect a dramatic potential increase in our turnover of €600,000 per year,” he says.

“The press truly lives up to its Minimized Waste name. It also handles a wide range of materials: we run films from 15–40 micron and paper from 40–220 g/m2 for different products.

“That’s why to further extend our gravure printing capacity we have invested in another Rotomec MW 60 press with 11 colours, due for installation later this year,” Harry Sieljes concludes.


Zwart managing director Harry Sieljes with the Rotomec machine rotomec

External weblinks
Converting Today is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Bobst Group Italia – Rotomec

rotomec rotomec


Privacy Policy
We have updated our privacy policy. In the latest update it explains what cookies are and how we use them on our site. To learn more about cookies and their benefits, please view our privacy policy. Please be aware that parts of this site will not function correctly if you disable cookies. By continuing to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.