Schumacher Packaging has installed the first Koenig & Bauer Durst Delta SPC130 inkjet corrugated press in the UK at its Birmingham plant.
It sets a new standard for innovation and efficiency the company stated in a social media post last week. While Schumacher has the inkjet press installed at other plants across the group, this is the first to be fitted with the Eco Dryer, a redesigned feeder and stacker for faster set up and makeready. There are six head arrays amounting to 202,000 individual nozzles and enabling the company to achieve 98% of PMS colours from the six colours, it says.
Schumacher will be able to print on a wide range of substrates including virgin draft and lower grammage recycled test papers. The FlexLine Eco+ press is able to print on 1.3-metre wide sheets at up to 80m/min.
The investment comes as part of a broader upgrade of the Birmingham site. Schumacher bought the business, then Jaffabox, in 2019 and rebranded it a year later. At the time the business offered flexo and litho printing but not digital. The reasoning for the purchase was to be able to offer existing Schumacher customers a reliable source of packaging for their Brexit affected UK operations.
Schumacher CEO Björn Schumacher said at the time: “Jaffabox offers huge potential, which we, as a group of companies, will be able to fully exploit – to the benefit of all our customers.”
It has expanded the site with additional processing lines and buildings, increasing the warehouse storage and investing heavily to bring the Birmingham site in line with the company’s sustainability and digital print led vision. As well as four SPC130 presses, Schumacher has been the pioneer site for the BHS Corrugated single-pass high speed roll to printed sheet project. This can print at up to 300m/min on material 2.8 metres across with water based inks.
Schumacher says: “We truly believe that the future of corrugated and solid board packaging lies in digital printing. Firstly, it is the only way to meet customers’ and consumers’ increasingly high expectations for premium quality designed packaging. And secondly, it makes small print runs financially viable. Not forgetting, the end to end automated processes have further boosted our productivity and raised the benchmark in terms of quality.”
This strategy is not under threat despite the announced takeover of Schumacher’s western European operations covering its plants in Germany the Netherlands and UK by Mondi. It had previously sold plants in Poland to corrugated packaging group Saica.
Schumacher Packaging will introduce the new press and services that result at Packaging Innovations next month.
