On the Road with packagePRINTING
Thinking ‘inline the box’ in Charlotte
Inline was the word of the day at the Gallus/BHS Folding Carton Technology Seminar in Charlotte, N.C, in November. About 50 attendees, including North and South American folding carton manufacturers and paperboard converters, learned “How to add value to the box while improving efficency.”
Klaus Bachstein, CEO, Gallus Group, kicked off the afternoon with a presentation on the Gallus/BHS inline philosophy. He explained that creating finished diecut blanks with a web-based system in a single pass optimizes workflow, simplifies handling, saves time, and boosts cost-effectiveness. He said it also allows for improved effeciency and process flexibility.
Speakers included Roger Wagner, senior VP, Partners in Human Resources Int’l; Robb Frimming, print services director, Schawk, Inc.; Mark Vanover, VP, marketing North America, EskoArtwork; Tom Hammer, product manager, XSYS Print Solutions; Johannes Stickling, president, BHS & Ernst Vormwald; Jerry Lux, division president, Cadmus; Bill Campagna, Paperboard Packaging Council; and Bud Gray, Brand Protection Alliance.
Cadmus Whitehall Group hosted the event and held a live demo, “From Roll to Diecut Blank in a Single Pass,” on the Gallus KM 510 S, at its Charlotte facility. Attendees were the first in the Americas to see the newest inline paperboard converting machine system in action in a production environment. Uli Kretzschmar, business development manager, folding carton, Gallus, Inc. and Wade Bryant, technical services, Cadmus, discussed the KM 510 S’s capabilities and highlighted its inline philosophy, running cartons for golf balls, setting up a 20-minute job changeover, and switching to a diecut blank run.
Getting to know EskoArtwork
In mid-November, packagePRINTING headed to Gent, Belgium to indulge in the best chocolate in the world, but more importantly, for a special event hosted by EskoArtwork. The “EskoArtwork Solutions @ Work” forum was held to officially introduce the newly merged company, a union of Esko and Artwork Systems.
On the morning of Nov. 15, EskoArtwork management held a press conference at its headquarters to discuss the merger and what lies ahead for the company. Carsten Knudsen, CEO, shared the new company’s mission statement: “To be the leading solutions integrator to the packaging and commercial printing value chain.” He said the company aims to be the “go-to provider” for pre-production and collaboration software for packaging buyers, designers, and manufacturers, and to be the preferred supplier of platemaking solutions for flexography. And, the real value, he explained, lies in ensuring integration from start to finish.
“Only the companies doing that integration will be successful going forward,” Knudson asserted. “We have the ambition to grow faster than the market.”
Guido Van Der Schueran, chief commercial officer, said, “We also send a strong signal to our current and future customers: EskoArtwork is committed to protecting their earlier investments. Our product development teams will continue to deliver solutions that further improve on their existing configurations.”
EskoArtwork displayed its complete range of solutions in what Knudsen described as a “corporate trade show,” set up in stations for brand owners, designers, trade shops, commercial printers, the tag and label producers, converters, and sign and display builders.
The product that attracted quite a bit of attention was the Esko Visualizer, a software program that allows design agencies to create and share realistic mock-ups and soft proofs of packaging designs. Attendees were fascinated with the software’s ability to experiment with different inks, substrates, and effects in different environments, under various lighting conditions. The product is designed to save costs by designing the packages through the program instead of spending an excess of money on manufactured mock-ups. pP
