Heidelberg is stepping up its mission to be considered an end to end system integrator in carton printing through a series of alliances announced at Interpack which is underway at the Messe Dusseldorf.
There are announcements about working with Pack-Smart for traceability, with Metsä Board on materials and with Pfenning group for logistics and automation. But there has been no announcement about Heidelberg’s strategy to offer a VLF sheetfed offset press. A year ago an alliance with Manroland Sheetfed was announced to take the Roland 900 and sell it as the Cartonmaster CX145. The administration of Manroland Sheetfed and announcement that press manufacture will cease at the end of this month seems to leave Heidelberg without a machine to sell.
This though is not altering its overall mission. CEO Jurgen Otto says: “The packaging market is a key growth driver for Heidelberg, as it is driven by global trends such as population growth, urbanisation, and the desire for greater sustainability.
“We are systematically expanding our solutions to cover the entire manufacturing process in packaging production, from substrate selection through printing, finishing, and logistics all the way to digital integration. As an end to end system integrator, we also collaborate with partner companies to create real added value for our customers through higher productivity, greater transparency, automation, and sustainability.”
The deal with Pack-Smart provides the transparency. It uses inkjet to identify each carton if necessary to offer a means of validating the location and production path. The partnership will develop integrated standardised systems across sheetfed and webfed carton printing and labels. The coding will ensure integrity from prepress to delivery.
The work with Metsä is about optimising the fibre based boards for volume production of high quality fmcg packaging. It will involve collaboration between Heidelberg’s R&D centre in Wiesloch and Metsä’s development teams in both printing and finishing.
The Pfenning group provides the tools to manage materials flows using AI and intergration with Heidelberg’s Prinect system. This includes the use of robotics with automation across printing and finishing and shows says Heidelberg a willingness to work with third-party suppliers. Chief technology and sales officer David Schmedding explains: “System integration for packaging doesn’t stop at folding carton printing. By intelligently integrating strong partners and industry specialists, we are expanding our value creation both horizontally and vertically – always with the goal of increasing our customers’ competitiveness and strengthening the industry as a whole.”
