UTECO and its southern African market representative, Sareltech, and value-chain partners – Praxair Surface Technologies (anilox rollers and sleeves), Macchi (extrusion machines), Jurmet (slitter-rewinders), GAMA International (control and automation technologies for inks, adhesives, lacquers and varnishes) and Camis (flexo plate mounters) – have shared the latest flexo printing and converting technologies and market trends with customers at seminars in Johannesburg and Durban.
Anan Hiyasat, Uteco Group Middle East and Africa (MEA) director, explained that these were the fifth and sixth Flex-on-Road seminars held in the region this year. ‘Uteco’s plan to host these seminars annually comes from the desire to solidify relationships with customers and partners along the entire printing and converting value chain and to learn more about converters’ needs to be able to develop and provide the highest possible added-value solutions in the future.
‘This regional market has great potential and is developing rapidly. According to the International Monetary Fund, it currently represents 5% of the global flexible packaging market and is forecast to grow by 25% by 2025. MEA is a strategic area for Uteco in which we plan to invest heavily over the next five years. We will focus on marketing, product innovation and customer service by increasing our presence at the main regional trade fairs and exhibitions, and in the largest printing and converting magazines. Additionally, in June, we opened a sales and service point in Dubai that offers customers onsite assistance, phone support and remote/virtual assistance. This offering is further enhanced by Sareltech’s technical centre and warehouse in Cape Town. The company’s technicians are certified to install and sell Uteco’s machines across the region.’
Anan guided delegates through the features and benefits of Uteco’s CI flexo presses, continuous inkjet digital hybrid presses, solventless laminating technologies, and coating and laminating machines.
He emphasised that the CI flexo press range comprises seven main product lines with more than 17 machine configurations to provide high-quality performance, a user-friendly operating system, and an ergonomic design for operators’ wellness and safety.
‘These presses are equipped with four patented technologies to guarantee quick start-ups, fast changeover times and low material waste,’ he explained. ‘Tune&Go auto tunes the servo motors at the beginning of every job, Touch&Go automatically sets up the contact point, Kiss&Go sets the impression, while Direct Drive Evo’s advanced electric shaft technology ensures that the CI drum and plate sleeve mandrels are flanged directly into their drive motors, so that the dot quality isn’t compromised.’
Another feature that reduces changeover times and minimises solvent usage is the Sprintwash automatic washing system, Anan added. ‘It is designed modularly (one module for each print unit) with a double pump (inlet and suction) system, and two-port process valve geared for quick connection, and removal from the press. Moreover, the pulsation damper improves inking and anilox doctoring, while the “loop” phases lower solvent consumption.’
He outlined 13 customisable add-ons and how the standard layout can, for example, be changed from unwinding, CI printing unit, drying tunnel, and rewinding to include a downstream rotogravure printing unit and turning bar before the rewinding section. Converters can, also, include a hybrid roto/flexo unit, which allows for six configuration options with a closed chamber doctor blade and rubber dosing roller to enable flexographic, semi-flexographic and rotogravure applications.
‘Uteco’s track record, with the Onyx model one of the top-selling machines in the CI flexo press category globally, has enabled converters to view it as an R&D laboratory for testing new ideas and products,’ Anan continued.
Hybrid heroes
He pointed out that the Sapphire Evo series is the first four-colour continuous inkjet digital hybrid press for large volume production that can print water-based inks on flexible films, and achieve almost analogue productivity on medium runs, depending on the application or substrate. ‘This is possible because the press combines Uteco’s well-established analogue printing technologies with digital advancements through which our R&D teams are pioneering medium- and wide-web applications.’
The Sapphire Evo can be customised with inline digital headsets to print variable data such as parallel lines of data matrix codes.
Laminating and coating customisability
Moving on to solventless laminating technologies, Anan explained that Uteco’s Rainbow 4.0, Rainbow Evo and Dualam laminators cover the full range of customers’ needs, from short runs with frequent job changeovers to long runs.
He stated that Dualam is 35% more productive than a traditional solventless laminator on short-run jobs thanks to its fast changeovers. It is, he added, also more cost-effective to operate because of the instant polymerisation of the adhesive, waste and energy-saving technology features.
Uteco’s coating and laminating range then came under the spotlight. Consisting of the Mistral, Mistral MV, Horizon 4.0 Duplex and Horizon 4.0 Triplex, the range is versatile and highly customisable to accommodate multiple coating technologies and different laminate structures, Anan explained.
The Horizon 4.0 Triplex, for example, meets customers’ needs for coating and laminating versatility because it enables multilayer laminates (up to triplex) with different process technologies, including solventless, solvent- and water-based lamination (wet or dry); in-register coating of solvent- and water-based varnishes, lacquers, and coating of cold seal and pressure-sensitive adhesives.
He noted that ‘multipurpose’, highly-automated trolleys and quick sleeve change (less than a minute without tools) facilitate fast job changeovers for all types of coating applications. Additionally, the drying system features two fully enclosed ventilation units, equipped with a semi-flotation dryer, to protect operators from noise and solvent fumes. The system is easy to access and clean while the energy recovery system improves the machine’s efficiency levels.
‘We will reveal more machinery developments at the K 2022 trade fair in Düsseldorf, Germany in October, where we hope to host many South African visitors at stand B20 in hall 4,’ Anan concluded.
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