News

Packaging Printers attend specialist Open Day

Short Run Reversible Carton Printing – Making it Pay

Magazine printing specialist PCP of Telford, owners of a recently installed RMGT Mitsubishi B1 sheet-fed offset litho press, played host to the team from MPL, a division of Surrey-based M Partners Limited, as it presented its first carton and card printing demonstration event to over thirty leading UK packaging and card printers.

The event was staged to showcase a range of new features using an RMGT Mitsubishi B1 press as they relate to carton producers. Speaking on behalf of MPL, Mark Stribley, Joint Managing Director, said: “Our aim was to present the capabilities and features of the press with a focus towards the packaging printer. There are a number of new “first time in Europe” features that we believed would excite carton producers, and give them ideas on how to make their print plants more productive and efficient.

“Carton work requires a fast, robust, and reliable printing press. This RMGT press offers carton producers a wide range of benefits. The simultaneous automatic plate changing system ensures fast and efficient make-ready along with very cost effective and accurate reverse printing. Mitsubishi technology also delivers a low-cost of ownership due to its reliability and an architecture designed to ensure that the press simply doesn’t stop.”

Marvellous on Make-Ready

The company’s research, along with the MPL teams industry experienced, had already highlighted some of the major issues that carton producers have with litho print production. Joint managing director Mark Stribley explains: “We believe that make-ready is an area where we can help packaging printers even more than other press suppliers. A large percentage of print runs are completed in minutes rather than hours. What is taking press time is preparing the machine for the next job. Simultaneous plate-change and a parallel make-ready programme are available on RMGT presses at a fraction of the price of all other suppliers, and these are key to creating an efficient and effective print room.”

The Telford event focused on these issues and the many other features of the RMGT Mitsubishi machine. “The press installed at PCP is a nine-unit Tandem Perfector (TP) - a unique architecture from the Japanese supplier that perfects the sheet whilst maintaining the same grip edge. This not only saves on substrate – up to 10mm per sheet – it also provides for the most consistently accurate back-up in the litho world,” added Stribley.

A series of presentations began with an introduction to the machines capabilities by PCP managing director Alex Evans, who explained both the reasons for his selection of RMGT Mitsubishi for his latest investment, and his experience of the press since installation last August. Evans was happy to explain in detail how well the machine had performed for him, and the benefits in general of working with RMGT Mitsubishi equipment. The company had been using a B1 Mitsubishi press at the plant for 17 years before the new install – a period of time when breakdowns and service calls could be counted on the fingers of one hand: “In our experience these presses are simply the most reliable presses in the world,” he concluded. Evans also paid tribute to the working partnership that PCP had built with the MPL team.

“Why Pay for Unreliability?”

MPL’s Steve Ennew then took the visitors through the press architecture and the benefits offered by the equipment, before live demonstrations were conducted, putting the press through its paces. The presentation provided an insight into the low cost of ownership of RMGT presses, as emphasised by the polo shirts worn by the MPL operational team on the day, with “Why Pay for Unreliability?” printed on the backs! Ennew further emphasised this by pointing out that the presses require no service contract – they very rarely break down or need parts. This is likely to represent a significant saving for any press owner.

Details were also illustrated regarding the tandem press configuration – offering reverse printing with both speed and accuracy. With no sheet turning device the RMGT press uses the same grip edge, saving on substrate and providing the most accurate back-to-back printing available.

As previously mentioned, job changeover times are ever more critical in the packaging arena. A new software package from RMGT was presented offering full make-readies in under three minutes due to simultaneous plate change across all units, and parallel automated make-ready.

Faster make-readies are further aided by inline or offline closed-loop colour control, and Auto Preset Inking via the CIP4 server and job change management software. Additional new software also allows for links to the users MIS.

Perfected, Dry Sheets on the Floor

Printing at 16,000 perfected sheets per hour, dry thanks to the UV curing option, allowing for work to be moved on the next production stage immediately, impressed all of the watching visitors. The specific configuration on show provided the ability to observe special colours and sealing. The chamber coater unit then applied coating where required – another important element in today’s design lead packaging market.

The machine being used for the event was a RMGT Mitsubishi TP1050. As standard the machine is delivered in a four-over-five configuration, supported by a coating unit. It incorporates a full UV drying system, with interdeck lamps placed in strategic positions on the press. Such a configuration will allow for techniques like drip-off varnish for spot and matt UV, metallic inks, and flood UV in one pass. It is currently the only press of this configuration and specification in Europe and offers its owners at PCP a major opportunity to stand out in the magazine covers sector.

Multi award winning Lowest Cost of Ownership programmes