Grafotronic inaugurates latest factory extension

Grafotronic, the Swedish manufacturer of finishing and converting equipment, has inaugurated a second factory extension at its plant in Warsaw, Poland in as many years, as the company seeks to strengthen its position as a supplier of systems for finishing digitally printed labels.

Grafotronic president Håkan Sundqvist addresses the agents meeting prior to the official opening of the company's latest factory extension in Poland

The extension has added 870 sqm, taking the total floor space up to 2320 sqm. The company can now produce 21 machines at a time in the factory.

The additional space also allows Grafotronic to house a permanent customer demonstration center that is available to its agent network for system trials and demonstrations. Multiple finishing and converting lines are installed in the factory, such as DCL2 and SCF2 digital finishing lines, and HI2 and Pharma2 inspection machines, showcasing semi- and full-rotary printing, foiling, laminating and die-cutting. The 160m/min GigaFast semi-rotary die-cutting module was on show, as were Bobst MX3 rotary flexo printing units integrated into a DCL2 line and laser die-cutting technology from Spartanics, demonstrated cutting a difficult IML substrate. New products and technologies in development were presented, such as new flatbed screen and hot foil/embossing modules designed with the wine and cosmetics markets in mind, and Q-Load, an automatic side-loading system for the quick change of magnetic die-cutting cylinders.

An HP Indigo 6900, fresh out of the box, was present in the factory. This is to be used in the coming weeks to demonstrate the latest HP Indigo digital press to printers from across Poland. This was configured in-line with a Grafotronic DCL2 digital finishing line.

The inauguration ceremony took place at the end of an agent meeting, which was attended by representatives of the company from across Europe, the Americas and other markets. Mike Bacon, Grafotronic’s new director of sales, was also present. His appointment is part of the company’s work to further its presence in North America.

The North American market is to account for 20 percent of orders in 2018/19, with 65 percent going to customers in Europe and the remainder into other markets.

Read Labels & Labeling, issue 3, 2018 for an update on digital finishing

David Pittman

David Pittman

  • Former deputy editor