LTI chooses Vetaphone for corona treatment

The family-owned business in Burlington, North Carolina currently operates six Mark Andy flexo lines, from two up to nine colors, as well as one of the manufacturer’s new entry-level Digital One presses. The company prides itself on providing a quality product and service and has been innovative with its use of added-value techniques that keep its customers one step ahead of their rivals. In particular, its use of spliced ‘dry’ films for in-line adhesive lamination has required the skilful use of the Martin Automatic unwind technology fitted to one of its two Mark Andy P7 presses.

With the company looking to grow its business in the shrink sleeve sector, facilities manager Jim Baker explained that LTI is targeting the local craft breweries and similar enterprises that do not have the resources to print direct onto cans, but still require high quality graphics for the product. Although the sleeves cost slightly more per can, LTI’s flexible production capability that offers short lead times on small runs is 'critical'. The key according to Baker is continuous running, and for that he needs reliability at every point in the production line. This has been aided by the introduction of a Vetaphone VE1A corona treater.

‘We’d had an American corona treater on our presses dating back years, but there had always been issues with reliability and service support. It was Mark Andy that suggested we made the change, so when we specified the second P7 press we made the switch. One key advantage is that we can now run as fast as we want, without the corona treater creating a production bottleneck.

‘We are seriously considering changing the nearly new treater on the first P7 to a Vetaphone unit.’

Currently running four days on double shift, and a single shift on Fridays, LTI is busy, but the plant still has spare capacity.

Baker continued: ‘We’ve refined our production capability and invested wisely in the best technology available. Having experienced Vetaphone products and service first hand, I can see why a market leader like Mark Andy specifies it as standard equipment. It has certainly made a big difference here.