An Army of Support
Press manufacturers must fight a hard battle to win converters’ business.
April 2006 by Megan Wolf
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It’s a virtual war out there and converters are on the front lines. Striving to stay one step ahead of the competition, converters need to know they have a support system that they can seek out and use for appealing product innovations, especially when it comes to the building blocks of the printing world—printing presses. Narrow-web press manufacturers are listening closely to what printers are asking for, and are developing new and better equipment all the time.
To do this well, they must know what converters are demanding from their presses. Mac Rosenbaum, vice president, sales and marketing, Aquaflex (A division of F.L. Smithe Machine Co. Inc.), sees several trends in what his customers are asking for. “Our customers are focused on flexibility—that includes the ability to accommodate combination printing processes inline. They’re also asking for greater press efficiency and faster changeovers to remain profitable in short runs,” said Rosenbaum. “We are seeing more interest in our digital capabilities to accommodate variable date printing. These customer requests point to an overriding trend toward adding more value for less cost.”
This year, Aquaflex unveiled the new FPC servo press. With its totally new design, the Servo FPC is a multi-substrate press that prints from 48-gauge films to 26-pt. board at speeds up to 1,000 fpm. It features a new in-line print head for reproduction, and uses advanced sleeve technology to provide fast changeovers. The FPC is 100 percent servo-driven and is offered in 16˝ through 32˝ web widths. “This is a robust and versatile printing platform that fully addresses the complex needs of the package-printing industry,” said Rosenbaum.
“Bigger, faster, better!” is another frequent request heard from printers. “What this means is that we see a clear trend towards longer and more complex press configurations, which provide significant improvements in set-up time and waste factors, coupled with demands for even better printing and converting quality,” said Paul Mattle, marketing manager, Gallus Corp. Headquarters, Switzerland.
The need to constantly provide improvements, coupled with the idea of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)—which encourages label printers to look at total overall cost for label production—and the fact that substrates are in a constant state of change, are what prompted Gallus to design the Gallus RCS 330 and the Gallus EM 260/410/510 S. “These printing systems, with now more than 80 presses sold, and several label printers already working with their second and third machines of the same kind, has proven its ability to reduce TCO significantly, while at the same time increasing printing quality,” said Mattle.
To do this well, they must know what converters are demanding from their presses. Mac Rosenbaum, vice president, sales and marketing, Aquaflex (A division of F.L. Smithe Machine Co. Inc.), sees several trends in what his customers are asking for. “Our customers are focused on flexibility—that includes the ability to accommodate combination printing processes inline. They’re also asking for greater press efficiency and faster changeovers to remain profitable in short runs,” said Rosenbaum. “We are seeing more interest in our digital capabilities to accommodate variable date printing. These customer requests point to an overriding trend toward adding more value for less cost.”
This year, Aquaflex unveiled the new FPC servo press. With its totally new design, the Servo FPC is a multi-substrate press that prints from 48-gauge films to 26-pt. board at speeds up to 1,000 fpm. It features a new in-line print head for reproduction, and uses advanced sleeve technology to provide fast changeovers. The FPC is 100 percent servo-driven and is offered in 16˝ through 32˝ web widths. “This is a robust and versatile printing platform that fully addresses the complex needs of the package-printing industry,” said Rosenbaum.
“Bigger, faster, better!” is another frequent request heard from printers. “What this means is that we see a clear trend towards longer and more complex press configurations, which provide significant improvements in set-up time and waste factors, coupled with demands for even better printing and converting quality,” said Paul Mattle, marketing manager, Gallus Corp. Headquarters, Switzerland.
The need to constantly provide improvements, coupled with the idea of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)—which encourages label printers to look at total overall cost for label production—and the fact that substrates are in a constant state of change, are what prompted Gallus to design the Gallus RCS 330 and the Gallus EM 260/410/510 S. “These printing systems, with now more than 80 presses sold, and several label printers already working with their second and third machines of the same kind, has proven its ability to reduce TCO significantly, while at the same time increasing printing quality,” said Mattle.
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