Heidelberg is perhaps late to the game in web printing of cartons. Koenig & Bauer’s Flexotechnica CI presses have shown themselves capable of carton printing, Manroland Goss has been marketing the Varioman C: for a number of years while Komori-Chambon has supplied flexo, litho and gravure web press for all styles of carton including quality critical cigarette boxes, admittedly using gravure printing.
The latter company has this year formed a direct subsidiary in the US to capture interest in webfed carton printing while also investing in new production equipment for its factory in France.
Manroland Goss has created a white paper to press the case for its carton press, a blanket to steel version of a conventional heatset web press, but with a variable cylinder size to cope with different repeat lengths.
One of these machines is installed at a purpose built plant in northern Germany belonging to GPD Packaging where the line has electron beam curing, rotary die cutting and two fold gluers producing 750 million pizza boxes a year. Format changeover takes four minutes.
The press provider’s argument for litho printed cartons has four pillars: the technology can produce high quality, consistency, with flexibility and competitive pricing; it offers brands both speed to market and greater flexibility than gravure and flexo thanks to easier prepress; it delivers on sustainability through less waste and delivers production efficiency.
A line can also include gravure units for metallic inks and flexo for application of barrier substances and varnishes.
“Offset rather than gravure or flexo meets these requirements” says Manroland Goss. The truth of that assertion is now being tested.
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