In the Groove

Bob Balzan, VP sales/marketing at Max Daetwyler Corp., says printers who also engrave typically have two to 10 presses, 25-120 employees, and spend $300,000 to $500,000 for an engraving machine.

Engraving service providers contend that taking on the complexities of engraving in-house often results in costly mistakes, and can distract from the core business of package printing or converting. Marty Marino, GM at Southern Graphic Systems' Exton, PA, facility, relates that Southern has taken over several internal engraving operations recently due to cost, environment and personnel challenges. At Southern Exton, a production department completes file stripping and trapping, and then step-and-repeats and marks-placement duties are delegated to an operator who specializes in the mechanics of getting the image onto the cylinder. Engraving is done on Hell Klischograph engravers driven by an OKI front-end.