The World of Wide-web

Package printers are finding faster options in the wide-web market, allowing for more jobs to go the wide-route.

By: Chris Bauer

THE SLOW SET-UP of wide-web presses has long been a thorn in the heel of printers faced with short-run jobs. And in this day of print-on-demand, just-in-time delivery, and more personalized jobs, that thorn is digging deeper into shops that are trying to meet these demands while still needing to turn a profit. To bring some relief to printers in this position, vendors have been working to reduce make-ready times and the labor involved in setting up the press.

Tom Jacques, marketing strategist for Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC), notes the increasing demand for short runs in the packaging industry caused PCMC to retool its flexo press offerings for the wide-web market.

"Increasingly we see a lot more short-runs coming in," says Jacques, who explains the new eXell press from PCMC was introduced as a hybrid between mid-web and wide-web offerings. "Quicker and quicker change-overs will get us to the point that mid-web and wide-web won't have a difference in terms of changeover times."

With the eXell, PCMC is able to offer the packaging industry several new features

• Fifteen-minute changeover of all 11 color decks with the eXsys robotic exchange system.

• Eleven-color capability to take advantage of today's six- and seven-color process technologies.

• New eXtreme drying technology.

• 100 percent digital control platform.

This quick changeover, Jacques says, will allow printers to take on jobs they could not traditionally handle using wide-web presses, and were considered "nuisance" jobs. He predicts this will result in less frustration for operators and bigger profits for shop owners.

Steve King, director of U.S. sales for Graphic Systems Services (GSS), which offers the Schriber line of flexo presses, says he has seen similar needs from customers. "I see the equipment getting much more sophisticated as far as set-up and makeready, giving the customer the ability to set up quickly." King predicts more vendors will be combining wide- and mid-web presses and feels it will be a big trend for the future.

Obviously, vendors need to keep up with the trends that printers are facing. They have listened and changed to meet those demands.

"It's forcing the press manufacturers to look at safe, efficient ways for job changeover," explains Matt Burie, account executive for Printco. "These items include cantilevering plate rolls and utilizing sleeve systems, automatic wash-up systems, chamber doctor blade systems, and automatic registration."

Speed is always a concern for printers. There have been some recent inroads on that front as well.

"Customers are asking that presses print more accurately at a higher speed," Burie continues. "This is a natural progression which has been aided by advancements in drive improvements and presses actually being machined to a tighter tolerance, [causing] less vibration and smoother running. The faster set-up can be achieved through the use of composite materials for the rollers and doctor blade chambers."

Printco manufactures a complete line of flexographic presses, available in single or multiple station, stack, or central impression models. Speeds of up to 1,200 fpm are featured, with repeat ranges from 12˝ to 36˝.

Tufco Technologies, a printer located in Green Bay, WI, had some speed concerns of its own, says Michele Cherney, vice president of the contract manufacturing sector. So this provider of diversified custom packaging solutions turned to an eight-color Astraflex flexo press from Windmoeller &amp Hoelscher.

"Printing letterpress with oil-based ink, with the long set-up/clean-up, was inefficient across the board," Cherney explains. The speed of changeover and speed of response are now measures of the company's successes and failures, she reports.

The 64˝ Astraflex features an advanced, fully modular central impression design, and is capable of printing on all types of flexible film, laminates, and paper webs. It runs at speeds of up to 1,500 fpm.

Times are changing as far as what vendors are offering. "In the past few years wide-web press designs certainly became more specialized," explains Kurt Flathmann, vice president and sales manager for Fischer &amp Krecke. He says the introduction of the mid-web press (24˝ to 40˝ width) was a significant example of specialization. It created a press designed specifically for short-run jobs that was compact, convenient and capable of extremely fast changeovers, while still able to print the highest grade and quality printing currently in demand.

"In turn, these specialty mid-web presses moved the short-run jobs, previously produced less efficiently on wide-web presses, off the large presses, enabling the bigger machines to run longer run jobs that they were better suited for," Flathmann says.

Fischer &amp Krecke's new Flexpress 16S is a gearless, servo-driven CI flexo press offering the ability to provide infinitely variable repeats. The press features cleanliness and simplicity of design, strength and stability, compactness, ease and speed of changeover, and quiet operation at all speeds. It incorporates a direct-drive design, a new plate cylinder system, plate cylinder sleeves, and anilox sleeves or rolls.

Focus on flexography

AapexX supplies a full complement of flexographic presses for the paper, film, foil, and tissue converting industries. The presses include one- to eight-color stacks for printing in-line with bag machines and extruders. Equipped with unwinds and rewinds, these presses can work off-line. A full line of central impression flexo presses are also offered equipped with eight color stations. The printing widths may be as wide as 120˝ and speeds can reach 3,000 fpm.

The 40˝ BHS UV flexo press has 10 print decks including a lacquering station. BHS gearless technology allows printing of repeat lengths in 0.004˝ increments without the limitation of format gears. This allows the printer to compensate for changes in web length as a result of scoring in die cutters. The electronic drive adjusts print length accordingly.

The Schiavi Alpha GL/NC8-CI, offered through Bobst, is an eight-color, gearless flexographic press that features reduced changeover times, reduced waste and production costs, and high printing speeds. It is available in the 34˝ to 50˝ range. The hallmarks of the Alpha flexo press are the digital AC vector drive and gearless technologies applied to the design of the printing decks. The deck design is dedicated to sleeves for anilox and plate rolls. The Alpha can be fitted with different types of sleeves of optimum thickness to achieve high print quality.

Designed for the packaging industry, ZIGZAG flexographic presses from Chromas Technologies offer a robust framework, quick job changeover features, and advanced time and waste saving electronics, combining to form an in-line "one pass" printing press. ZIGZAG is designed for running jobs such as folding carton materials, liquid packaging, paper products, and specialty items. It is available in web widths of 26˝, 32˝, 42˝, and 52˝ and prints at 1,000 fpm.

At Drupa, Comexi will be introducing a 50˝ wide, 10-color gearless flexographic CI press with a dedicated sleeve system. It will be known as the FP 10-color CNC gearless flexographic press. Circle Also from the flexo frontier, Kidder offers several models of six-, eight-, and 10-color wide-web presses, custom built to meet the requirements of any application, in web widths up to 80˝. From its Signature Series presses with robotics and sophisticated deck positioning systems to the more economical Xpress-8, these presses provide high speeds. Roll-to-roll or in-line designs with die cutters and sheeters are available options.

Retroflex designs stack and central impression flexographic presses to operate with existing equipment or as part of a complete Retroflex line. An optional feature that Retroflex offers on its stack printers is the ability to print multiple colors simultaneously, to one side of the web, while the opposing set of stations is being set-up for a new job to print on the same side of the web. Presses are available at over 100˝ wide.

Stevens International integrates the benefits of offset print quality and superior flexographic color coverage in its wide-web folding carton combination press system.It is geared to help users achieve even, heavy coverage for solids, metallic inks, pattern coatings or custom colors. You can choose any combination of offset and flexo printing and coating capability, with reverse printing, electron beam drying and web tension management. Available in widths from 32˝ to 52˝.

Wolverine Flexographic now offers wide-web, high-speed presses for in-line printing. Presses are available in one or two colors and at widths of up to 101˝. Speeds of up to 1,500 fpm can be met. Wolverine presses can offer a repeat range of 20˝ to 50˝.