New Bronze age dawns

South African printer SA Litho Label Printers has pioneered an inline replacement for the messy process of bronzing wet glue labels. Andy Thomas reports

Located in Cape Town, South Africa, SA Litho Label Printers is one of the country’s leading converters, offering a full range of both wet glue and roll fed label converting technologies.

SA Litho’s key wet glue label customers are in the high quality food, spirits and beverage segments, where the high luster offered by bronzing is often in demand.

‘The bronzing process gives a fine result, but amidst environmental concerns, customers requested that we develop an alternative,’ says managing director Leon Witbooi. ‘The very fine nature of the bronze powder meant that everything within the immediate vicinity of the actual operation tended to attract the powder, including the operator. This left us with a print area that became covered in bronze powder. It also proved a challenge for brand owners, who used the process to great effect on very prominent brands, to find an alternative due to what had become an environmentally challenging process.’

Some 18 months of research later, supported by an investment in a Roland 706 double coater and partnering with a local coatings specialist, the company had jointly developed an inline coating and application process which still offered brand owners the luster synonymous with conventional bronzing. Previous industry efforts opted for acrylic gold as the replacement.

‘The outstanding quality of the label is one of the key benefits of using the New Bronze,’ says Witbooi. ‘There is no loose bronze powder and thus dusting has become obsolete. This results in a more clean and neat label. Additionally, the process is more environmentally friendly being printed inline and therefore minimizes electricity usage as well as waste associated with the bronze powder.’

New Bronze is available in the four conventional bronze shades: pale gold, rich pale gold, rich gold and copper gold.

Mixed process

SA Litho was established in 1921 and joined the Caxton and CTP family of businesses in 1983. It now employs 194 people and has grown consistently over the last five years.

There are three label business units: sheet offset, roll label conventional and roll label digital. Some 60 percent of the converter’s business is wet glue labels and the rest self-adhesive.

Wet glue labels are printed on two Roland 700s and one Komori 6-color. Foiling is carried out offline using Gietz foiling presses and inspection is manual. A medium run length would be around one and half meter labels.

The digital division consists of two HP Indigo ws4500 presses, mainly printing wine and nutraceuticals. The decision to print conventional or digital is made on both run length and complexity. Digital label finishing systems includes a Smag coater, a Berra silkscreen printer, a Newfoil foiling system and Digicon converting line.

The conventional roll label division runs an 8-color Nilpeter MO3300 offset with hot foil and silkscreen, an 8-color Gallus EMS340 S UV flexo press fitted with hot foil, cold foil and silk screen, and an Aquaflex. The roll finishing department has three new Rotocontrol slitter-rewinders fitted with AVT Helios II inspection systems. These use the master PDF as a reference.

The Prepress workflow is supplied by Kodak Prinergy and a Prism MIS is used to fully integrate processes from estimating through to shop floor data collection and finally invoicing. A recent addition to the prepress environment is a Screen digital flexo plate output device.

Sustainable operation

Witbooi and his team have a major commitment to sustainability across the business, and have worked with the Global Carbon Exchange consultancy to measure the operation’s total carbon footprint. Reducing energy consumption is a major focus and a group of employees is currently working with the University of Cape Town to develop a waste management sustainability plan.

In 2010, SA Litho became the first label converter in South Africa to receive the Forestry Stewardship Council’s Chain of Custody certification for both its wet glue and self-adhesive printed labels.

A key focus for the organization is its skills development programme. SA Litho has eight apprentices, taking on three new ones a year. Machine operators pursue operations management diplomas at the Production Management Institute and the business uses the postgraduate business courses at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business to further develop managers in preparing them for more senior roles.

As well as food, spirits and beverages, SA Litho is also active in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics, home and personal care sectors.

Pictured: (L-R) Leon Witbooi, Estaban Pastor, Tommy Van Nierkek

This article was published in L&L issue 4, 2012