Gallus hits the pavement in North America

As Gallus USA tours its ‘Rock’ press around North America, the company’s president talks to Danielle Jerschefske about a novel representative structure across the country.

Gallus has established a network of specialist representatives across North America to help promote its ECS340 ‘Rock’ press.

Brian Bishop, president Gallus USA, explained the changes to L&L during a recent stop of the Granite press road tour. ‘We felt some confusion in the marketplace and want to set the record straight. Whether a customer works with a new Gallus representative partner or direct with Gallus – we’re jointly working together as a team.’

Gallus USA has chosen to work with companies like All Printing Resources, which already offer other high‐end products to label converters. In addition to APR, Gallus has partnered with the Hesser Group to support the East Coast and Neil Livesey of Technoflex to cover the South East. Rick Young of Fairway covers Minnesota and Wisconsin, while Marco Schaeuble, Fast Technology, covers the South West and Mike Golas of Apium the West Coast.

All traditional Gallus lines for label production – EM 280, EMS, RCS and TCS – remain exclusively represented by Gallus associates in the region.

Rob Wray, Gallus ECS 340 product manager, trained each ‘Rock’ representative on the opportunities the machine offers in the commodity labels sector. They are charged with finding new opportunities and bringing potential new clients up-to-speed with ECS specs.

The Gallus ECS 340 ‘Rock’ press made its North American debut at Labelexpo Americas 2010. The show, in Chicago, was the first stop on the machine’s road trip across the continent.

Constructed from granite, the press is bolted to the floor of an 18-wheel semi-trailer and has made its rounds in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, New Jersey and Toronto with their next stop in California. The purpose is two-fold: one, to show the stability of the rock frame as it’s basically plug and play once the truck parks. And secondly, to promote the press that serves a wholly new market sector for the long-established press manufacturer.

The servo driven ECS 340 is positioned as a basic label press, which only offers the essential options. No foiling or screening. It’s built to effectively service the commodity market with jobs that require multiple colors without multiple processes. It has a different price point than traditional Gallus machines designed for the production of complex label constructions, and is meant to serve this specific niche in the flexographic market.

So the press is all about reducing changeover time and waste, incorporating anilox sleeves, a chambered doctor blade and with a web path of just 1.1m.

Open house boosts flexo productivity

The All Printing Resources open house featured a Gallus ECS 340 ‘Rock Press’ and presentations focused on increasing productivity. David Lanksa reports

All Printing Resources (APR) hosted an open house on June 15 and 16 to introduce flexographic professionals to some of the latest technology, as well as numerous technical presentations designed to offer productivity improvement ideas. Productivity solutions available to preview and demo at the event included equipment, supplies and software from over a dozen industry providers, such as Flint, Esko, and Epson.

The event included an open air display on wheels of the Gallus ECS 340 ‘Rock’ Press and a full presentation agenda on both days featured sessions that covered topics such as standardizing anilox inventory for consistent profitability, using the right doctor blades, and solutions addressing bounce gear marks, flat top dots matching custom spot colors and more.

Pictured: Gallus ECS340 'Rock' press demonstrated as part of APR's education day

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This article was published in L&L issue 4, 2011