Cerutti Group

WÜRZBURG, Germany—Press manufacturers Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) in Germany and Officine Meccaniche Giovanni Cerutti S.p.A. (Cerutti) in Italy have signed an agreement transferring to Cerutti for an undisclosed sum all KBA’s intellectual property rights (know-how, industrial designs and patents) relating to rotogravure printing presses for magazines, catalogues and decorative paper. KBA will design and manufacture the folders for all new Cerutti publication rotogravure presses. In addition KBA will continue to provide after-sales service for the rotogravure presses it sold up to the date of the transaction. The agreement will allow the two groups to optimise the development and manufacture of their products and

Is bigger, better? Not always, but bigger is getting better, especially when it comes to wide-web printing presses. Wide-web presses are a mainstay in the flexible packaging arena where many times, package size can dictate press size, especially when you throw in productivity and costs. But shorter and shorter production runs, combined with the ability of state-of-the-art narrow-web presses to run flexible materials, are providing other avenues for flexible packaging to be printed. In this environment, wide-web press manufacturers are responding by making their big machines “light on their feet,” with an ability to respond to the needs of the marketplace. packagePRINTING

Wide-web printers are facing a transforming marketplace. The changes, however, are in many ways advantageous for wide-web print shops. For instance, consider the switch many brand owners have made in their packaging, swapping rigid packaging materials for retort and stand-up pouches. These packaging innovations have created a fast-growing market segment that benefits wide-web printers. In addition, competition on store shelves has forced brand owners to require higher print quality in their packaging in an attempt to make their products stand out from the crowd. This, in turn, has required wide-web press manufacturers to produce equipment that enables printers to meet and surpass these demands.

With so much focus on the narrow-web printing industry, many advances in wide-web presses have taken place under the radar. There have been a myriad of production enhancements, including faster changeovers, less waste, faster speeds, and higher productivity and quality. Technological enhancements across the board have increased the efficiency, economics, and caliber of wide-web printed packaging. These advances have attracted a lot of attention. “I see a continued high interest in any and all technological improvements associated with increasing productivity, quality and, of course, enhancing the profitability of the converter,” said Randy Wolf, product development manager, Comexi North America. In the June issue of packagePRINTING, we