Consistent Across the Board

Zumbiel Packaging proves there is a place for gravure printing in the era or short runs.

One hangup for gravure has been the time it takes to get one cylinder out, the next one in, and to start the process over again. At Zumbiel, the changeover challenge was taken on first when it began implementing lean initiatives.

"We put the entire press room through some lean initiatives as far as reducing copy change time," says Gary Roberts, beverage plant manager. "The whole plant is 5S. And, we're in the process of going through some additional lean training as far as a refresher for some of the folks on the floor."

"A lot of lean initiatives have been enacted here," adds Mace. "We started on gravure, videotaping makeready processes, everything that was done." By doing so, Zumbiel mastered quick changeover for gravure cylinders.

Roberts adds, "Using some of the basic lean philosophies, we were able to reduce copy change time significantly on our machines without spending an exorbitant amount of money."

The results have been positive. "When we did our quick copy change initiative on our gravure presses, we took copy change times down almost 50 percent," says Roberts. "After time, it balanced out at about 35 percent reduction in copy change time." That number doesn't include makeready on the diecutter. "That's just changing from copy to copy in the same die shape and configuration. We're down to less than an hour for a six color with varnish with copy change on our gravure presses."

These lean practices have allowed Zumbiel to use gravure to print shorter run jobs. In addition, the location of the press when it was installed forced Zumbiel to print shorter runs with it. "Traditionally, the very very short runs, in the neighborhood of 10-15,000 impressions, are done in flexo," explains Mace. "Most people think gravure is a half million impression business, and some of it is, but it doesn't have to be. We run pretty regularly 50-100,000 impression runs on gravure. When that press was installed, it was in a flexo operation, where all we knew was short tuns. It was installed in an operation that had a flexo fast turnaround mindset. I really think that helped form a basis."

Circumstances surrounding various machines' capabilities also led the company to use gravure for the shorter runs. "Most of the items we run gravure are large format cartons—37˝ or longer," adds Roberts. "Our gravure press has the largest platen cutter in our organization (a 40˝ feed-up). So, naturally all those large format cartons migrate to that machine because of the cutter that's on it."

Capacity and consistency

Yet another reason Zumbiel runs gravure for short runs is that the machine is available. It's a question of capacity. "Most of the things we're printing in gravure [we do] for capacity reasons," says Mace. "If you were to pull in here and ask how are you going to print this, you wouldn't go to gravure for the quality purposes. But, we have a gravure press that does a good job and we can do smaller runs on it."

According to Zumbiel, consistency is also a major factor for running gravure on various jobs. "As gravure goes, its big thing is consistency, and we have that," he says. "Because of where we live, and because we're not the integrated guys, and because we're forced into the short-run world—the relatively short-run world—we've learned how to make quick gravure changeovers.

Send the reaper home

Mace is quick to note that although gravure has a lot to offer, flexo is still nipping at its heels. "Flexo has made major strides with the servo presses [in terms of] print quality," he says. "With anilox improvements, plate technology, and the presses themselves, they are pushing the envelope and getting much better." He also says that web litho is encroaching on gravure's space. "Web litho used to be hamstrung by the cassette sizes, but now there are variable sleeve offset presses coming out."

Gravure press manufacturers haven't sat idly by. "[Manufacturers] realized that copy change solutions to gravure are going to be the bread and butter in the future, and I think a lot of manufacturers are going to quick change technology, sleeves, cylinders, and quick in-and-out cart designs for quick changeovers on gravure," adds Roberts.

Ultimately, Zumbiel Packaging proves that gravure remains a viable printing process today even with the push toward shorter runs. Gravure definitely has its place in today's package-printing market. pP