Dutch converter embraces digital prepress

With a full suite of electronic prepress tools from neighbor Agfa, Eindhoven Packaging B.V. turns out high-quality folding cartons in small runs, profitably.

By Managing Editor Melissa Larson -- Converting Magazine, 6/1/2001

Not far from the Belgian headquarters of digital-prepress system supplier Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a folding-carton maker that is the very model of a packaging operation Agfa managers like to showcase as "converting's future."

Eindhoven Packaging B.V., located over the Belgian/Dutch border in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, is an ISO-9000 registered folding-carton plant. It is part of the Van Genechten Packaging group, with annual revenue of 346 million euros, and 2285 employees. The Eindhoven plant itself employs 150 workers. It was acquired in 1994 by Van Genechten Packaging, Turnhout, Belgium, from lighting giant Philips, and still prints quite a few light-bulb cartons for Philips, as well as other profitable short-run sheetfed carton jobs for cigarette, candy and beverage makers.

But this forward-looking operation, led by managing director Gerrit Vlassak and a team of experienced converting managers, also prides itself on keeping up with trends in packaging—and in package printing. The company's management is aware of flexible packaging's advances at the expense of cartons, and has kept up-to-date on various package-print methods and the advantages of each.

Overall, Eindhoven managers know the company's success rests upon maintaining print quality and building in operating efficiency. And that's where the converter's digital prepress system comes in. "Agfa prepress tools let us profitably handle carton jobs with exacting detail, perfect registration, and stable colors throughout the run; as well as take advantage of operating efficiencies such as easy, quick changeover, fewer adjustments and the highest possible throughput," says Vlassak. Although he declines to quantify, "We've attained substantial time and cost savings," says operations manager André van Elderen.

Precise preproduction

Long accustomed to electronic prepress, Eindhoven's previous setup required them to have digital plates made at the Van Genechten facility in Turnhout. The decision was made to acquire a Galileo Thermal digital system from Agfa, complete with ArtPro front-end software from Artwork Systems (see "Partners in Belgium's Graphic Valley"), an Agfa Apogee PrintDrive system, and Thermostar digital plates. The entire process is now in-house, up and running.

"We were concerned about downtime during the transition," Vlassak says, "but the total turnaround was 2 days, after which we were up and running with the Galileo."

From nine CAD and prepress workstations, in a department Eindhoven managers now dub "preproduction," ArtPro software allows digital preflighting, with PackFlow workflow software connecting to the Agfa Galileo system. Also under consideration is the addition of an Agfa Sherpa digital proofer at some future date.

A series of internal quality-control steps, including imposition accuracy, leads to the final go-ahead for platemaking. Agfa's Apogee PrintDrive speeds the process by allowing for the direct input of copydot scans, DCS or TIFF files, and outputting them as raster-image processed (RIP) PDF files to the platemaker.

The typical volume for the Agfa Thermal platemaker is about 10 plates/hr on two shifts. Technicians check the imaged plates against folding-carton samples for dimensional accuracy, and sample press sheets for ink density.

Onward to the press

Then it's on to the press. Eindhoven's three MAN Roland 700 sheetfed presses, equipped with automatic plate loading, handle everything from the simplest carton graphics to the most elegant 6-color job with UV lacquer. When they're running high-end candy packaging, four hot-foil and embossing machines afterward apply luxurious touches of gold. Three Bobst CE and CER diecutters turn out the finished carton blanks for collating and casepacking.

In general, the Eindhoven operation is perfectly suited to the high-quality, short-run carton market that is so popular among European customers. And it's not just famous European brands whose cartons are printed here. Philips, Nestle, CSM, Sara Lee, and Duracell are among the international marketers whose packaging is printed here for European distribution.

Although it is proud of its installation at Eindhoven Packaging, Agfa product and marketing managers reeled off a list of recent prepress successes for a contingent of international packaging press. The group, with Converting representing the United States, toured Agfa's Mortsel, Belgium, headquarters in March. Among their latest digital prepress installations: large-format offset labelmaking for pet food, carton-making for food, and medium-format flexo printing of aseptic carton blanks.

Convinced of the future growth potential of package printing, and anticipating an imminent shakeout/consolidation in this highly competitive and fragmented market, Agfa and Artwork Systems believe themselves well-positioned for converting success.

More information:

Agfa Corp., 800/227-2780, fax: 978/988-9323, www.agfa.com Enter 251.

Artwork Systems Inc., 215/826-4500, fax: 215/826-4510, www.artwork-systems.com Enter 252.

Bobst Group Inc., 888/226-8800, fax: 973/226-8625, www.bobst.com Enter 253

MAN Roland Inc., 630/920-2000, fax: 630/920-2457, www.manroland.com Enter 255

If you found this article helpful, ENTER 250 or Inquire Online.

Partners in Belgium's "Graphic Valley"

Eindhoven Packaging's digital-prepress for converting operation benefits from an unusual and highly successful partnership between two Belgian neighbors, Agfa and Artwork Systems. Headquartered not far from Mortsel in Ghent, Belgium, in the heart of that country's "Graphic Valley," Artwork Systems has made a commitment to the packaging prepress market with its ArtPro platform-independent, front-end software tools.

The company, incorporated in 1992, made impressive product debuts at both Drupa 2000 and Graph Expo 2000, and has stormed to the world lead in professional prepress software for labels and packaging, according to Petra Tant, product manager for that segment.

Early on, Agfa and Artwork Systems forged a co-marketing relationship in both the U.S. and Europe, that included each firm displaying the others' equipment in their showrooms, creating better software interfacing with Agfa digital prepress devices, and even making joint sales calls on key prospects and customers. "We're even collaborating on a six-city European roadshow with Agfa to showcase tools for flexo prepress," says Tant.

ArtPro offers Eindhoven converting managers the ability to preflight PDF and PostScript files from their packaging customers with complete editability. Prepress personnel can then intercept errors and questionable areas in files early in the process—including missing fonts, text sizes, missing images, image resolution and compression, use of special colors—before proceeding to digital platemaking.