UK converters investing

16 June 2004




More from marketing milk

Continuing growth in the market for self adhesive labels for PE milk bottles has led LPS Bridgewater to order two eight colour Nilpeter FB-3300 flexo label presses and extend its factory. Milk labels make up around 80 per cent of the company's £5.6M turnover.

The first of the 330mm wide presses was commissioned in April, while the second is scheduled for delivery in October. Many labels now require process colour and spot colours, so both presses are configured with seven water based flexo units with hot air dryers and an eighth UV flexo unit for varnishing. A turner bar and delaminating unit allow for reverse side printing of promotional or seasonal messages.

About 15 per cent of the output involves clear-on-clear filmic laminates, typically using 60 micron PP facestocks, so the first press will have Nilpeter's optional film printing package with soft tension control. To accommodate the extra capacity, LPS Bridgewater is extending its factory to give a total of 1,858m2 of space. Other flexo presses include two existing six and eight colour 330in wide RotoPress 3513 machines. This model has since been redesigned and rebadged as the Nilpeter FB-3300, following the Danish company's acquisition of the US based manufacturer three years ago. Two six colour Mark Andy 177mm wide presses complete the plant list.

"We have chosen FB-3300 presses again because of their proven durability and high performance," says Ian Gill, managing director. "They are ideal for producing commodity labels at high speeds, especially when fitted with twin-roll turret rewinders for non stop production. We run them at over 180m/min on a 24-hour, four-day basis."

LPS, a privately owned company with 26 employees, supplies labels to some 60 independent dairies, including large Dairy Crest, which supplies the major UK supermarket chains. It also produces self adhesive labels for cheese products, as well as orange juice and mineral water bottles.

First in flexo imaging

Liverpool based TW Parker is one of the first UK print and packaging companies to install Esko-Graphics' Spark XT Cyrel Digital Imager. This investment is part of a £400,000 expansion strategy to streamline the company's workflow and increase levels of service for its high profile customer base.

The expansion includes a new factory designed to the latest food hygiene IOP/BRC standards. The site will house new precision sleeve and label applicators for the production of packaging, labels and shrink sleeves for leading UK food suppliers and supermarkets such as Tesco, ASDA, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer.

"Our customers have been asking us for faster turnaround times and in-house proofing facilities," says Toby Parker, "so we have moved all repro in-house."

Corrugated choice

Rigid Corrugated operates from two plants in the UK – at Selby and Desborough. Both have undergone major investment and expansion programmes recently. The latest acquisition is a Martin 618 case making system for the Desborough plant, boosting annual manufacturing capacity for machine erect cases by some 36M units. This move follows the installation of a Martin 618 at the Selby facility last year.

Scapa's tape spend

Leading developer of adhesive tapes and compounds Scapa has opened new manufactur- ing and research and development facilities in Ashton-under-Lyne. Part of a six-year, £22.8M capital investment programme, the new operation has substantially increased the company's production capability for specialist compounds and technical tapes for printing and other industries. With current sales of around £190M, Scapa says it has focused on developing facilities to service customers in a number of key sectors.

Printing cartons

Medica Packaging, in Crewe, is to install a Komori six colour Lithrone LS640C with coater. The company supplies cartons for the pharmaceutical and healthcare markets and ,as managing director John Beardmore explains, the new press is ideally suited to handle both short and long runs of high quality cartons demanded by the industry.

"We supply eight of the world's top 10 pharmaceutical companies and the trend from all of them is towards shorter lead times," he says. "This means we need a press that offers extremely quick makereadies, which can be cost effective when handling multi job change-overs during one shift."



Contacts

LPS Bridgewater Tel: +44 (0)1278 445100 Medica Packaging Tel: +44 (0)1270 211 632 Rigid Corrugated Tel: +44 (0)1536 760266 Scapa Tel: +44 (0)870 871 3131 TW Parker Tel: +44 (0)1515 237308




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Rigid Corrugated
TW Parker
Medica Packaging
Scapa

Another Martin case maker for Rigid Another Martin case maker for Rigid


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