In a €9 million investment in gravure printing, the A&R Carton factory at Augsburg, Germany, has installed a Gallus ICS 670 press equipped with 11 print units, reverse-side printing, cold and hotfoiling technology, screen printing, multiple embossing and a panel separation unit.
Harald Schulz, CEO and president of AR Packaging Group, says the new press “will revolutionise the premium folding carton market. All current finishing stages, including stamping, are to be processed inline in only one working step.” He predicts: “In the future, all users of premium finished folding carton will come to appreciate the unique advantages of this exclusive technology.”
Peter Misof, works manager at the Augsburg factory, adds: “We have the opportunity to reduce tool costs that have previously been very high. The new technology will make the brilliant gravure printing unimaginably competitive against competing printing processes and will be of significantly higher quality. The process also shows the red line through all working steps that up to now have been separate, including all the necessary processes and machinery.”
The new Gallus machine features inline-coupled multi processing by rollers, which reduce various processing and finishing steps to one single working process. These so-called Easy Value Add (EVA) platforms use variable combinations together “to enable unlimited flexibility with minimal personnel requirements”, it is claimed. An EVA platform can be equipped with screen printing, flexo printing, hologram applications, inkjet coding, laminating, cold or hotfoiling, gloss, matt, barrier and special effect finishes, security printing as well as structure, micro and multiple embossing.
Another advantage is said to be the enabling of exceptionally efficient gravure printing on the new press. New hollow cylinders, such as a small roller diameter, thin steel plates on the cylinders and other benefits, are claimed to have significantly reduced the manufacturing costs and have more than halved the current delivery times from the engraver.
“We are approaching something like equality with offset,” enthuses Peter Misof.
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