Taiwanese label converter Wen Lung Printing Industry Co. recently installed a modified Martin Automatic STS butt splicer and STR turret rewinder (www.martinautomatic.com) on its existing Sanjo UV rotary letterpress to enable nonstop productivity.

The turret rewind, coupled with the butt splicer, facilitates nonstop roll changing. When the specified footage has been rewound, the completed roll is stopped and a festoon accumulates the printed web at full press speed. The turret indexes, presenting the finished roll for removal, and the web is automatically transferred to an empty core. The transfer mechanism is designed to begin new rolls without web fold-back at the core, eliminating a source of wrinkling and material waste.

Since the installation, Wen Lung has reported a 33-percent improvement in productivity and better than 3-percent savings in material usage. It no longer wastes time due to the press stopping and starting, plus, it has been able to run the butt rolls it used to throw away.

Along with the increase in efficiency, printing quality also has become more consistent, Wen Lung management adds. The company, founded in 1973, produces self-adhesive labels, in-mold labels, stickers and computer labels. It has two Sanjo presses, nine label printers and four automatic screen printing presses from Onda, two hot-foil stamping machines and two Evecia semiautomatic screen printing presses.

As in many Asian printing companies, limited space posed a challenge, says Martin Automatic. Martin needed to configure the splicer and rewinder so that the allotted space could accommodate the addition of two machines. For this application, Martin designed each with a built-in air turn bar to allow them to be installed perpendicular to the press line. As an added bonus, the splicer features a tension isolation dancer, which improved the tension control on a press that is more than 10 years old.

Due to the success of the splicer and rewinder on the one Sanjo press, Wen Lung is considering purchasing another set of the STS splicer and STR rewinder for its second Sanjo press line.

WEN LUNG PRINTING INDUSTRY CO., LTD., 886/626-1951-5, fax: 886/626-4533-1, www.wenlung-labelprinting.com.tw

MARTIN AUTOMATIC INC., 815/654-4800, fax: 815/654-4810, www.martinautomatic.com

ONDA MFG. CO., 81/03-3693-2359, fax: 81/03-3693-0922

SANJO MACHINE WORKS, 81/03-3253-8351, fax: 81/03-3257-0828

Diecutting expert American Gasket Technology (Addison, IL) has been steadily expanding its business in the last 20 years. It started out in a small 1,800-sq-ft facility in Chicago under the name of Richcor Gasket. As business grew, the company moved into a 36,000-sq-ft facility in Melrose Park, IL, in the early 1990s. Along with the move, AGT expanded its capabilities to include slitting and laminating. It also changed its name from Richcor Gasket to its current name.

The expansion of AGT continued, and by 2000, the company needed a bigger facility. It moved into its current 110,000-sq-ft plant. The company also increased its product offerings to include point-of-purchase products, clamshells and blister packaging. AGT produces all the blister packs in-house, designing and creating the tooling and dies needed to manufacture the product. The point-of-purchase products include channel strips, display strips, hang tabs and other plastic display constructions, all of which required the diecutting of thick plastics.

“The diecutters couldn't do it,” explains Domitrius Poulos, president of AGT. Poulos needed a diecutter that could cut through thick plastics and also be able to perform some non-traditional diecutting projects. He found the solution in the form of Rotoflex's DLI 330 slitting/rewinding and diecutting machine (www.rotoflex.com).

“It is built very well,” Poulos says. “They use real steel frames. It doesn't vibrate and has great accuracy.”

The DLI-330 features an automatic register control, die adapters and blocks, and an under score unit. Plus, the slitter/rewinder section includes a dual rewind, shear and crush knife slitting, pre-determining electronic length counting and auto stop on roll end. It can handle web widths up to 13.25 in. and has a maximum speed of 750 fpm.

AGT runs the machine at less than maximum speed and was still able to increase output. Running at 600 fpm, AGT has experienced a jump in productivity by about 60 to 70 percent, Poulos says.

AMERICAN GASKET TECHNOLOGY, 630/628-8888, fax: 630/543-1595, www.agtproducts.com

ROTOFLEX INTERNATIONAL, INC., 800/387-3825, fax: 905/670-3402, www.rotoflex.com

Via a major investment program, Polish labelmaker Etiko adds a new Mark Andy LP3000 flexo press to its new 12,000-sq-ft production plant near Szczecin on Poland's northwest border with Germany. Supplied by Mark Andy Europe AG in Basel, Switzerland, the 13-in., 8–color LP3000 press features full UV-flexo printing and joins three multi-color Mark Andy Scout presses installed in 2001.

The new Mark Andy is fitted with delam/relam, turner bars, motorized register control, a laminating station, an additional waste rewinder and two screen cassettes, making it one of the most highly specified LP3000 lines in Europe, according to Mark Andy's European sales manager Walter Eitner. The LP3000 is also fitted with Mark Andy's own “Gizmo”—a device for manufacturing multilayer labels, and Etiko has already taken its first order for this type of work with recipe labels.

Currently working double shifts seven days a week, Etiko has a throughput of more than 1.3 million sq ft of substrate each month, making it one of the largest label converters in the area. Of strategic importance is its geographic proximity to Germany, which along with the Czech Republic, accounts for 20 percent of its total sales. More than 75 percent of the company's output remains pre-decorated, thermal-transfer labels, primarily for supermarkets.

The new LP3000 moves the company into higher-quality markets, where the screen-printing capability will be useful for household-cleaning products and cosmetic labels. Currently, Etiko has a customer base of 300, the largest of which accounts for less than 10 percent of its sales, so a high degree of flexible capacity with fast changeover times are essential in allowing the company to meet its JIT schedules.

From a small beginning in 1993, the family-owned Etiko has grown to become a major influence in the Polish label market, where consumption per capita still lags well behind that of Western European countries. With its new production facility and printing capacity, combined with its years of label expertise, the company is well placed to ride the growth curve, and earn profits that will allow continued investment.

ETIKO, 48/61-487-9666, www.etiko.pl

MARK ANDY, 800/700-MARK, fax: 636/532-1510, www.markandy.com