MMCanals offers first digitally printed caps service in Spain

Manufacturars Metálicas Canals (MMCanals) has installed two HP Indigo ws4500s for printing capsules and caps for use by the food and drink industries. 

For some time, advocates of digital printing have predicted that digital presses would come to be used by packaging companies and other manufacturers whose primary activities were other than printing. In bringing digital printing into its manufacturing facility, MMCanals is the first to offer this type of service in Spain. 

Established in 1947, MMCanals is a family business that first focused on the manufacture of penicillin capsules, later moving into metallic cap production for applications like soft drink and beer bottles. The company had the opportunity to diversify into the manufacture of other closures and also produces large volumes of capsules for wine bottles when synthetic materials began to replace metal. 

In the past, MMCanals carried out all its printing on nine gravure presses. Production is now being migrated to the ws4500s with PE, PET, biodegradable PVC and special substrates printed with up to seven colors and finished with a range of techniques including hot foil stamping and embossing. 

‘The HP Indigo presses give us greater flexibility,’ said Roger Guasch, general manager, MMCanals. ‘Our aim is to replace our conventional presses with digital ones, not least because it’s a cleaner technology.’ 

The manufacture of gravure cylinders is costly and requires the use of more energy and solvents than digital printing. By its nature, conventional (gravure, flexo and litho) printing has a start-up period during which ink application and register are achieved. This process generates material waste – in the case of MMCanals, waste of expensive substrates – and lengthens the overall press time.  

With HP Indigo technology, start-up waste is eliminated as print quality and ink register are immediately achieved. Job changeovers, using the same substrate, can be done on-the-fly, and HP ElectroInk is dry when it leaves the press and can be finished immediately making the entire production process more efficient. 

‘We have spent a considerable period of time integrating digital printing into our production workflow,’ Guasch continued. ‘The pre-press process for the manufacture of capsules is similar to the prepress techniques used in digital printing. We are also able to expand our color palette, offer short runs, make rapid changes to artwork, and thus extend our customer base to those for whom our production methods would not have previously been appropriate.’ 

MMCanals employs 115 people with a team of sales representatives, dealers and associated companies in France and the USA.  

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