KPG Europe installs 18-color flexo press at Polish converter

KPG Europe has installed an 18-color 270 flexo press – which the company believes to be the only press of its type in the world – for printing artificial food casings at the Supravis Group S.A.  Based in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Supravis is a major producer of food packaging for the Polish market, and exports some 50 percent of its output. 

Utilizing twin temperature controlled impression drums, the Euroflex Press is also suited to printing packaging films, polybags and labels, as well as all types of artificial casings.

A unique feature is the capability to produce 360o printing, enabling all round product graphics, which is a major benefit when high impact packaging designs are needed. This is achieved by a purpose designed scraper system mounted on each drum. Fitted with programmable controls, the dry ink is removed using a suction system. For both sides printing, the front-to-back, drum-to-drum, auto register guarantees exact registration,

Designed for non-stop production, with fully automatic roll change, operating speeds of 80-100m/min (dependent on application) can be maintained without loss of print quality. Available in two web widths of 270mm and 400mm, the press has been designed for use with specially formulated cationic inks – a must for printing polyamide casings.  Conventional free radical UV flexo inks can be used when printing films.

Eight open chamber flexo print units complete with GEW high powered interstation lamps are located on each 1800mm diameter drum. The UV flexo varnish units complete with final cure, mounted above each print section, enables both sides of the web to be varnished. An innovative feature is the solid metal anilox sleeves, which are distortion and temperature resistant. 

Press down-time is minimized with the inclusion of a flying splicer and turret rewind, also fully retractable plate sleeve mandrels. The AC servo infeed which maintains constant web tension whether the substrate is 25 micron film or 300 micron polyamide and chill rollers coupled with the temperature controlled central impression drums maintain a constant web temperature irrespective of substrate. Other standard features include a double-sided corona treater, four BST web guiding systems and twin-camera web scanning system.

Glenn Miller, technical sales director of KPG (Europe) said: ‘It took more than 18 months to finalize the technical specification of the press to meet the application requirements of Supravis. The result is a high performance press meeting a very specific application. This has been a complex but rewarding project, working with closely with Supravis to take a new design concept to press manufacture and finally press installation.’

This Euroflex specialist press is available with various configurations including a dual-pass version. This is a cost effective option based on a single impression drum, turn-bar with cross-over unit and web compensator. Fitted with six or eight print units, the same colors can also be printed in register, on the reverse of the web. A semi-automatic version with festoons, allows the web to be manually spliced without stopping the press. A start/stop press is also available.