High Quality Cartons With KBA Print Control System

Colonial Carton Company, a pharmaceutical folding carton manufacturer is reporting impressive results using two KBA Qualitronic II in-line sheet inspection quality control systems.

Colonial Carton Company, a pharmaceutical folding carton manufacturer in Clayton, North Carolina (USA) is reporting impressive results using two KBA Qualitronic II in-line sheet inspection quality control systems.

KBA's Qualitronic II systems have been applied to Colonial Carton's KBA Rapida 105 41-inch sheetfed presses.

The printer is the first in North America to have both of its KBA presses equipped with the Qualitronic II systems.

Joe Elphick, president and chief executive officer of Colonial Carton, said: "The scanner on the Qualitronic II inspects every sheet in every press run.

If it spots an error, it reports it to the operator.

It is so fast that it can see an incomplete dot of an 'i' on the sheet and can monitor and inspect up to 16 million shades of colour at the rate of 18,000 sheets per hour." He added: "We're proud to be the first printer in North America to operate a KBA press with Qualitronic II in-line sheet inspection systems.

The system increases our printing speeds and cuts down on waste." The Qualitronic II in-line sheet inspection system is claimed to cut waste and flag imperfect sheets.

The system utilises a colour camera that is mounted near the delivery area and aimed at the impression cylinder through a narrow slit in the floor plate.

During the press run, each printed sheet is inspected at 8,000 lines per second, said KBA.

Within the claimed high resolution, the system can detect the slightest colour deviation, distinguishing 16 million colours.

In addition to segregating imperfect sheets from the run, the Qualitronic II system reduces waste by warning the operator of deviations in the press run, such as fading colours due to lack of ink.

The operator is able to react before large quantities of waste sheets accumulate unnecessary costs, added KBA.

Elphick said: "Our two KBA presses have quality built in.

They allow us to print on both sides of the carton, giving us speed and less waste.

The KBA Densitronic system on both presses monitors the ink densities and spectral values and can detect colour variations on each sheet and alert the operators." KBA commented that since its presses print 100 per cent of all North American currency and 90 per cent of the world's currency, the system was first developed for banknote and currency printing where quality control is paramount.

The systems are especially important in Colonial's industry of pharmaceutical printing because the government has high standards for the boxes.

Accurate reproduction is an absolute necessity in this market, added the company.

KBA said it has been an important partner for Colonial Carton.

After a fire on August 15, 2005, KBA helped Colonial Carton re-build its pressroom by supplying the company with two new presses in record time.

When KBA North America learned after the fire that Colonial's two-year-old KBA sheetfed press was unusable, the company's North America president and chief excecutive officer, Ralf Sammeck, visited Colonial see what could be done to put the firm back on its feet.

Sammeck contacted KBA's German headquarters where all presses are built to secure a solution to Colonial's problem.

Ralf Sammeck said: "Our core value proposition at KBA is providing the ultimate in customer service under all conditions and when we heard about Colonial's tragic fire we immediately pulled together every resource from sales to manufacturing to service to help the company get back up and running as soon as possible." And Elphick explained: "KBA happened to have several eight-colour presses with perfector units being built in Germany.

It usually takes six months to order a press like this but when the president of KBA North America called Germany, he worked out a deal for us where KBA would take one of those presses, put the perfecting unit on the front, remove one unit, add UV, add hybrid, and make it to the specifications that I had before.

The press was despatched from the KBA plant in Germany within eight weeks and was up and running and producing our jobs 14 weeks after the fire." By October, the company was once again die cutting and gluing boxes and the first replacement press from KBA arrived in December, giving Colonial Carton one complete production line just four months after the blaze.

The KBA Rapida 105 four-colour press was made specifically for Colonial Carton's pharmaceutical printing needs, equipped with the company's Qualitronic II inline sheet inspection system that takes pictures of each sheet for full copy control and produces 18,000 sheets per hour.

A KBA Rapida 105 41-inch seven-colour press, equipped with Qualitronic II, arrived in April.

Two-hundred-and-fifty-five days after the US$17 million blaze, Colonial Carton Company opened its doors to a completely renovated facility, including the addition of the two new presses from KBA Germany, new die-cutting and gluing equipment and improved, computerised graphics that have increased CCC's capabilities over its previous technology.

The company's graphics and die shop were moved from the rear of the building to the front and a new conference room and break room were built.

A new automated baling system to handle paper and cardboard scraps was also installed.

Colonial Carton Company said it offers its customers accuracy, speed, and value.

It has several production lines, a strong client base, a full design department, in-house die shop, online inventory management and is cGMP ISO 9001-2000STD approved.

Elphick said: "I wouldn't buy any other press but a KBA.

I had an opportunity to rebuild Colonial Carton Company with the best equipment I could find and KBA was my first pick without questions.

Why? Because of the service and quality, reliability and confidence I have in the company.

If KBA tells me the press will do it, it does.".

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