Product category:
Printing Presses and Machinery (New and Used, Service and Repair)
News Release from: KBA | Subject: Rapida 105
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 07 September 2006
Pack Printer's 5-Colour Press With
Coater
German packaging printer Offermann-Verpackungen in Eschweiler, near Aachen, celebrated its 25th jubilee by installing a KBA Rapida 105 universal press.
German packaging printer Offermann-Verpackungen in Eschweiler, near Aachen, celebrated its 25th jubilee by installing a KBA Rapida 105 universal press The press stands in a five-year-old production hall alongside a Planeta Super-Variant two-colour press that looks new but has been in service since 1985
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 24 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The key feature of the Rapida 105 press is the coater.
The Super-Variant coats via the inking unit and it took Offermann a while to achieve the desired quality for blister coating, for example, in multiple passes.
The Rapida 105 universal can apply blister and gloss coating alternately along with protective and barrier coatings for food packaging.
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When KBA unveiled a new Rapida 105 at Drupa, a similar press had already been put through its paces for several months at the pharmaceutical centre run by the Rob Leunis and Chapman Group (RLC).
Two different screen rollers are used, depending on the volume of coating to be applied.
Since the press runs in just one shift (though that is sometimes much extended), switching between different coatings is relatively simple.
After shutdown the coater is cleaned out completely and the press converted ready for the next run.
This routine will continue even when two-shift operation begins in the autumn.
The five-colour Rapida 105 coater press with extended delivery has turbo-boosted capacity, and Offerman-Verpackungen's Gottfried Offermann is delighted.
He said: "We can now print in one day what used to take a week." As a result, roughly half the company's output is contract work, but the company's Therese Offermann is working hard to win new accounts.
She commented: "It often takes a year or more before we can give a first presentation.
Then we have to submit a quotation and produce samples that prospects fill and test in-house." She has landed some major contracts, the biggest for 2.5 million prints.
One son, Markus, is in charge of print production and even operates the Rapida himself.
Another son, Ralf, who is plant manager and a qualified folding-carton mechanic, is head of the finishing department.
Daughter Claudia is studying business administration so that she can assist her mother.
It is this family dedication that has given the firm a flexibility that distinguishes it from its bigger rivals, said KBA.
If necessary, production continues all night and at the weekend, and the fact that the entire family in engaged in the value-added process delivers quality and financial benefits as well.
At present Offermann focuses on solid board, but it has received a number of enquiries for G-flute and F-flute work.
Stock weights range from 250gsm (140lb index) for drug packaging (healthcare products) to 300gsm-400gsm (140lb-180lb Bristol) for food packaging and 700gsm (320lb Bristol) for industrial packaging.
Most of the cartons it prints are GD2, GC, GC2 and GK1.
Gottfried Offermann explained: "Originally we ordered a four-colour Rapida coater press but we received so many requests for special colours that we soon changed that to a five-colour.
Now we could sometimes do with a sixth colour." And having worked with Planeta and then KBA technology for most of his career, Offermann would look at nothing else.
Not all packaging printers are big international groups or mid-cap enterprises, and the family business run by Therese and Gottfried Offermann and their 12 staff proves that as far as success is concerned, size is not important, commented KBA.
One reason for the firm's success is the design service it offers, working either with agencies, or directly with clients to develop new packaging or enhance existing designs.
Only pre-press and platemaking are outsourced because an in-house platemaking line would not be cost-effective for one shift and seven printing units.
Unusually for such a small operation, Offermann has ISO 9001:2000 accreditation, added KBA.
Therese Offermann said: "Some customers wouldn't be on our books if we didn't have ISO.
Manufacturers in the electronics and metalworking industries were the first to push for total quality control, prompting accreditation in 2001.
The company is currently preparing for HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) certification, which food hygiene regulations made compulsory for German food manufacturers in 1998." She added: "Many of the criteria have already been fulfilled, allowing the company to print a wide choice of food packaging that now accounts for a large proportion of output." Since four blanks for food packaging measure 730mm (28.75"), the Offermanns specified a sheet format of 740mm x 1,050mm (29" x 41.5"), 20mm longer than standard.
The Rapida also features KBA's management information system, Logotronic Basic, which allows external pre-press data to be downloaded in JDF for press preset.
It also supports the option of production networking at a later date.
The finishing department runs a Bobst and an Iberica die-cutter and a folding-carton gluing machine.
There are plans to add another gluing machine to keep pace with the larger print volume, and this will boast a coding capability so the firm can expand its range of drug packaging.
There is room on the site to double the present 2,000m square metres (21,500 square feet) of production space but, according to Therese and Gottfried Offermann, that is a job for the next generation of the family. Request a free brochure from KBA ...
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