Boxway has struck a partnership with Reproflex3 which will result in improved quality for the corrugated packaging it can produce at its Peterlee plant. The system has been in operation across a single shift and now goes on to two-shift production delivering high quality post print flexo jobs.
The Cramlington repro house will supply flexo plates imaged with its Vortex screening technology to run on a five-colour Weipong rotary die cutter. This has so far printed only solid and single-colour graphics. It is now capable of reproducing complex five-colour designs with a coating if required, on coated boards, meeting requirements from a customer base that spans FMCG brands, national food and drink producers, online retailers and other manufacturers.
Boxway has been able to offer high quality printing from its Exeter plan thanks to investment in a HanWay inkjet printer. But this has limited capacity and is best suited to very short runs. The link with Reproflex3 removes that limitation, enabling the northern plant to complement the southern site.
This is achieved with the repro company’s Vortex screening technology. This overcomes the need to switch to a different anilox ruling when changing the material being printed. As the company has a wide spread of clients, frequent roll changes are to be avoided, and the company runs with a fixed high volume roll in place. Boxway can now leave the anilox rolls in place while plates imaged through Vortex will have a 30% higher screening resolution than the plates Boxway used before so can deliver the halftone quality required.
Vortex will enable Boxway to offer existing customers print with more colours and the ability to print on coated surfaces. The technology promises to cut dot gain, ink usage though the application of optimised ruling for the job in hand. It expects the step up in quality will appeal too to new customers.
At the same time there are gains in press availability, higher vibrancy to colours, finer resolutions for text and image details, so pushing up the quality that the company is capable of delivering. A training programme led by Reproflex3 is underway for north production and sale teams at Boxway.
“Reproflex 3 was an extremely easy choice for the business,” says Boxway CEO Andrew Woollard. “It was crucial to select a partner that is innovative, forward thinking and can deliver the value added technical support the business requires.
“With the application of Vortex and the training provided, we are confident that we can elevate our business and provide our clients with even more exceptional packaging solutions.”
The partnership commits the companies to work closely to push what is possible when using flexo to print on corrugated.
Mark Vaus, technical sales director for Reproflex3, says: “The prepress offering to the corrugated industry has stagnated in the last decade which is never a good thing. We have seen repro companies fall by the wayside through lack of investment and the inability to offer something different to a standard LAMS digital plate.
“Through the implementation of Vortex, along with our training and development support, we are confident that BoxWay will achieve their goals and surpass expectations in the UK corrugated packaging industry.”
