Fifth Ferag Processing Line For Polestar Sheffield

In a move to further expand its gravure print capacity, the Polestar Group has ordered a fifth Ferag post-press processing line for its Polestar Sheffield (UK) plant.

In a move to further expand its gravure print capacity, the Polestar Group has ordered a fifth Ferag post-press processing line for its Polestar Sheffield (UK) plant.

Mike Young, managing director of Polestar Sheffield, signed the contract during Ipex yesterday.

The new fifth line, which will be installed in mid-July and go operational on September 1, will comprise a four-station Ferag Unidrum, a trimming drum and a six-station inserting drum.

The Unidrum system is said to be capable of saddle stitching, inserting and glue card application and can handle A4 and tabloid-sized products at up to 30,000 copies per hour.

As with Polestar's existing four lines, the new line will also feature the Ferag Multidisc, which helps to maximise the capacity of the presses.

Mike Young explained: "The Multidisc provides an excellent example of Ferag's unique enabling technology.

We wind all our printed products off the press on to a Ferag Mutidisc, unwind the products in to the Unidrum for stitching and trimming and, if required, can then rewind the products on to the Multidisc and send them to the Rollstream, which feeds a polybagging unit.

This process reduces waste and manpower, whilst significantly improving uptime and productivity.

In addition to the new Ferag system, Polestar has also ordered Segbert stackers and palletisers and Affeldt shrinkwrappers, all of which will be supplied by WRH Marketing UK.

Young added: "We went for the Segbert and Affeldt equipment as they were also supplied by Ferag's sales and service arm, WRH Marketing UK.

Between them, Ferag AG and WRH Marketing were the only entity able to satisfy our requirements for a turnkey system from a single source that could manage all the post-press installation and ensure that each line would be operational by the deadlines we set.

According to Young, the existing four lines have met all Polestar's expectations and have been operating superbly since they went live.

He commented: "We're extremely pleased with both the performance of the Ferag equipment and with our staff who operate it.

As Polestar Sheffield is a greenfield site, very few of the people we employed for the post-press work had any experience in print production.

But, thanks to the ease of use of the equipment and the excellent training provided by Ferag and WRH Marketing UK, our operators have been able to run the lines almost without fault from day one.

Even a year on, they're still squeezing even greater performance out of the system.

Marcus Evans, managing director of WRH Marketing UK, added: "We're very satisfied with the performance to date of the four Ferag lines at Polestar Sheffield and, of course, with the feedback we've received from the management team there.

We're now looking forward to extending our close working relationship with Polestar to ensure a seamless installation and initiation of the fifth Ferag system.

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