High-performance printing press

"The press can no longer be treated in isolation," said Philip Dunn, head of marketing at Komori Corporation in the UK. "Compared with other markets, the printing presses sold to the carton printers have actually become the center of the entire production system."

At the drupa exhibition in 2004, a significant proportion of visitors to Komori's booth were carton printers. In fact, they all came for the Lithrone LS640 press that was on display. This printer is equipped with a non-stop paper feed device and double delivery device, and provides the operator with a "one-touch" tool that can automatically preset various parameters, including paper feed device, delivery device , change the version and make corresponding adjustments according to the thickness of the printed sheet. The press demonstrated a new process developed by metalFX, which uses silver ink to print a variety of metallic luster.

The Lithrone LS640 press is compatible with JDF and can be used with a range of Komori equipment to increase efficiency. For example, it can connect with the prepress system and use digital job information. This type of printer also has other features: automatic ink pre-inking and automatic cleaning of the ink roller, equipped with optical densitometer to ensure higher color consistency, with the ability to easily change the structure of the press, and can be comparable The color quality of the proofing effect.

General printing method to achieve special requirements of the Paper Box

In the past 12 months, the use of Komori's products in the carton industry has seen the largest increase. The company received orders from a large number of printing companies serving the carton industry. They chose the Lisztron LS40 printer. The flexibility and versatility of this press structure is truly amazing.

In the past, the added value of a printing line simply refers to the drying and glazing that was done after the printing was completed. However, the flexibility of the LS40 series allows us to tailor a "print workflow" to the individual needs of our customers. For example, when the printed sheet can be flipped anywhere in the printing line, it is possible to connect a UV or aqueous coating unit, infrared drying or UV curing unit to any position between the printing units.

That is, the printer of this structure can print UV ink on the first or the first two units, and is cured by a drying unit. Then, flip the sheet and print the regular ink on the back. In fact, any situation is possible. In this fiercely competitive industry, customers are responding to the increasingly complex requirements of carton designers, and at the same time completing the entire printing process, it is undoubtedly breaking through the boundaries that were once considered to be favorable for maintaining industry competition.

And, because the carton factory has been more driven by the market, several of them have introduced a new structure of the printing press in advance to provide print buyers with a new packaging concept. The requirement to add non-traditional four-color units or spot-color units to the original printing press has brought many special applications, including gold and silver inks, thin layer coating and glazing. Such applications usually require the attachment of a flexo unit directly to a Lithrone LS40 machine. Some of these types of presses are now usually equipped with three coating units (and three drying units if needed) to provide flexibility to meet production requirements.

Double sided printing performance for large substrates

“One of the reasons why the Lithrone LS40 series press has become so popular in the printing industry is that it can perform high-speed double-sided printing on a large-quantity substrate surface and achieve an unblemished effect,” said Mr Dunn. “ This is particularly beneficial in the carton industry because the function of flipping the sheet and printing it on the backside can print the pattern or text inside the carton without the need for a second printing process."

Komori's three-drum reverse printing mechanism, consisting of three rollers of the same size, can transfer substrates completely without pressure and ensure the best quality of double-sided printing on substrates of various thicknesses. Excellent pneumatic control and the installation of a special ceramic sleeve on the opposite four impression cylinders can reduce the occurrence of plate blemishes during printing when the paper is turned over, allowing the paper to be conveyed smoothly to the delivery device. One of the advantages of this device is that when printing large quantities of substrates, the speed can be as high as 15,000 sheets/hour.

success case

1. Flexible expression of special printing effects

A new Lithrone six-color LS640 press ordered by Stockton's Harrison packaging printing plant was one of Komori's LS40 presses sold in the summer. The Harrison packaging printing house had purchased a Lithrone L640 press for three years. The company's business is mainly concentrated in the field of food and health care products, and can complete a comprehensive prepress, printing and post-press processing. Two years ago the company moved into a 35,000-square-foot facility and since then, the company's business volume has increased by 75%.

“There is a trend in the food packaging field where customers want to be able to produce more attractive carton packs at a lower cost. Just like, we just completed a job using three separate metallic inks – Its production costs are high, but when shoppers walk in supermarkets, such products will undoubtedly attract their attention quickly.There is competition everywhere in life.People's money is limited, time is limited, So retailers must convince a customer to buy their product within a short period of time,” said Brian Carr, the company’s print production supervisor. “The only way to meet this requirement is to use new technology, reduce scrap rates, and shorten print preparation. Time, high-speed printing and stable product quality. In the UK, our new Lithrone LS640C press is one of the highly regarded B1 sheet-fed presses."

Now we see several trends, such as the tendency to combine matte and bright coating effects. In order to achieve this combination of effects at a time during the printing process, the design of the printing press must be very flexible, allowing for the addition of built-in drying devices anywhere in the unit. Various developments in press technology have also expanded the possibilities for applications such as the use of anilox transfer rollers for better production control.

The Harrison packaging printer tested the newly purchased LS640C printer and found that the scrap rate of the device was unbelievably low. Not only is the short live production, but even its flagship product, the entire printing shop completes the job at a low cost.

2. Develop new features to meet customer needs

Mr. Steve Wood, production technology director at Medica Packaging Pharmaceuticals in Crewe, believes that the carton printer's innovative ideas play an important role in market expansion. In August 2004, the company ordered a new six-color Lithrone LS640C printer with a coating unit.

“The carton industry is also subdivided into professional market segments such as food, medicine, cosmetics, etc. We have always put these areas of expertise as the company’s investment objectives to ensure that special jobs can be handled more efficiently,” said Mr. Wood: “The competition has been fierce in many fields such as food packaging for several years, and the pharmaceutical packaging sector is now facing the same competitive pressures. Such competition will force printers to serve pharmaceutical packaging companies to make more investments.”

“However, the cartons have always occupied the field of pharmaceutical packaging. There are also many exciting developments and innovative concepts in the printing of cartons. We are in close contact with end users and suppliers of materials and equipment to form a good relationship of cooperation. More convenient to develop new products and processes."

“Komori is a good example in this regard. It is always a producer who cares about the needs of customers. It takes the lead in developing new functions and provides solutions to our needs. Our new Lithrone LS640 press is equipped with printing. The ability of UV and water-based varnishes can also be printed on plastic substrates.It is a very flexible printing machine, short print preparation time and fast printing speed enables us to complete live and long runs at very effective cost The LS640C printer is suitable for printing from 2,000 to 200,000 impressions."

3. Simultaneously serve high-performance equipment in different fields to reduce production costs

Sherwood, a professional greeting card printing company that continues to invest in double-sided printing technology, recently purchased a Lithrone LS640P printer with a coating unit. The new B1 press was delivered in August 2004. Nottingham's printers used this printer to complete the following process in just one pass: printing monochrome on one side and five colors on the other side. Add a seal.

“We need a press that can effectively serve several different areas (from business to business to the greeting card market), and the Lithrone LS640P is such an ideal device.” Jeremy Bacon, General Manager, Sherwood Say. In addition to its short print preparation time and low reject rate, the new Lithrone press also offers very stable and precise color control. One of the most important reasons why Sherwood chose the Lithrone press was Komori's reputation as a good reputation for double-sided printing. Mr. Bacon said: “I went to Japan to inspect the installation and testing of Lithrone's double-sided printing press. I was deeply impressed by what I saw at the time.” Komori’s three-roller turnover mechanism is the company’s in this area. the key to success. This mechanism can print at high speed on substrates with different quantitative ranges. It is expected that the new Lithrone LS640P press will be 20% more productive than the original six-color Lithrone press. "The competition in the greeting card market is extremely fierce. The new Lithrone LS640P press enables us to produce first-rate products at the lowest possible cost."

Source: "Global Box Industry"