Glossop makes further investment in package printing with Mitsubishi press

- Mitsubishi press to allow production of “film-ready” skin pack cards in one pass

 

- Press supplied through Mitsubishi agent M Partners

 

Glossop Cartons has installed a second Mitsubishi printing press at its Derbyshire premises.

 

The four-color Mitsubishi D3000LX B1 format litho press incorporates inter-deck UV drying, end of press coating, as well as IR and warm air drying solutions. It joins a V3000 press from the Japanese manufacturer.

 

It will be used to print skin cards, which are used to produce retail packs typically found in the DIY and car accessory market sectors.

 

The D3000LX press was supplied through M Partners, which took on the management of both sales and service for Mitsubishi litho presses in the UK and Ireland in 2010.

 

M Partners also represents GUK folding and inserting equipment, and Steinemann laminating products. In 2011, M Partners moved into the digital market with MGi digital printing and finishing equipment, and post-press inspection equipment from Mabeg.

 

Jacky Sidebottom (pictured, top with fellow company owner Brian Sidebottom in front of the new Mitsubishi press), managing director of Glossop Cartons, said: ‘We had been seeking the right press to accomplish a complex printing task for our business for some time.

 

‘The coating unit and the coating know-how of the team at M Partners were key to our decision to purchase our second Mitsubishi machine.

 

‘Our V3000 press has been extremely reliable and has performed wonderfully and consistently for us, so we had no doubts whatsoever about the print quality on offer from Mitsubishi, it was all about the specific coating task that we had to achieve.

 

‘Other press suppliers, including both German and Japanese manufacturers, were unable to supply the solution for us in our time frame. M Partners, with their knowledge, gave us the solution to our request and gave us a real working fix.’

 

Glossop recently invested in a Fujifilm Acuity LED 1600 UV LED inkjet printer, which it will use to produce samples and prototypes.

 

The new Mitsubishi press allows Glossop Cartons to produce “film-ready” skin pack cards in one pass – something that had previously required two machine processes. As the largest UK producer of skin packaging, this advance provides a further significant competitive advantage to Glossop.

 

Sidebottom said: ‘Previously we had added coating to the cards as an off-line process. This ageing off-line unit needed upgrading, but we were finding it difficult to purchase a suitable replacement.

 

‘Incorporating the coating routine into the printing pass was the ideal solution, but too many coating “experts” were saying it couldn’t be done.’

 

Gary Doman, M Partners litho specialist and head of sales, said: ‘I was convinced that the Mitsubishi coating unit, combined with our in-company expertise and experience, could provide the answer to the questions being posed by the team at Glossop Cartons.

 

‘We worked closely with the coating supplier and experimented with a variety of transfer mechanisms in the coating unit itself. The right components helped us to solve the puzzle.’

 

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