Breger Centre is based in Maillot, France, and a printer of flexible packaging using rotogravure printing. Operating in the food industry and phytosanitary packaging markets, Breger Centre delivers both packaging on rolls and ready-to-use bags.
A player recognized by the graphics industry for its mastery of gravure printing technology and its ongoing quest for product innovations, Breger Centre regularly wins prestigious prizes. Indeed, in 2018, the company was awarded the Super Prestige Technique prize by the French association for promotion of rotogravure, Prohélio. Since 2009, Breger Centre has been an integral part of the Brodart Packaging Group, a historic designer and transformer of packaging that brings together all printing technologies (rotogravure, flexo, offset and digital) and provides tailored solutions for a wide variety of complex customer requirements in particularly strict industrial markets.
Breger Centre's ambition has always been to offer products of the highest quality. To achieve this performance, the company continuously strives, with the unwavering support of the Brodart Packaging Group, to renew its production equipment and offer its customers a fleet of cutting-edge machines. The printer is always therefore able to respond to the most complex of requests. As Benoit Charpentier, Site Director, explains "Breger Centre is committed to a global approach that aims to provide a safe, high-quality product manufactured in an environment in which the risks are identified and managed. Every stage in our production process is subject to careful inspection". Within this context, after completely overhauling the BOBST 8-color rotogravure machine installed at the Maillot site, Breger Centre just needed to add the finishing touch, a state-of-the-art color register system.
"The recent acquisition of BOBST's new Registron® S 6100 D register system is perfectly in line with the high-quality printing approach that has been anchored in the Group's history for over 100 years", says Benoit Charpentier, Director of the Breger Centre site.
After studying the various systems available on the market, Breger Centre chose to place its trust once again in the BOBST brand. In mid-2018, the new Registron® S 6100 D register control system was installed on the rotogravure machine: "We had previously already had a BOBST Registron 4100 and going for a Registron from the same manufacturer meant that our operators would be able to get to grips with the system quickly," explains Benoit Charpentier. "Furthermore, the working comfort of the EasyStart and AutoTrack technologies on the Registron® S 6100 D appealed to us," continues Benoit Charpentier, clearly happy with his investment.
Quality as a priority
Color registration on a rotogravure printing machine is of vital importance. With a tolerance threshold to the nearest tenth of a millimeter, the slightest deviation can result in more than 200 meters of web being lost. The Registron® S 6100 D enables very precise longitudinal and lateral color register. The system in fact capable measures variations in web elongation and takes preventive action to avoid spread of register errors, even detecting the smallest of defects. "The Registron S 6100 D ensures the reliability of our printing line and a consistent level of register quality throughout jobs ," says Benoit Charpentier.
Operator comfort
Although Breger Centre endeavors to provide consistent fine quality in the packaging ordered by its customers, the company also pays particular attention to the working conditions of its employees. The EasyStart and AutoTrack functions offered by the Registron® S 6100 D therefore played an important part in the printer's choice: "EasyStart is an interesting technological development. As it automatically ensures the research of the register marks and the switching of the control units in automatic mode, it means that, free from this operation, the operators can focus on other tasks during the startup phase." The AutoTrack technology is also truly appreciated for its convenience. The motorized optical cells automatically track the register marks during the production, which is particularly useful during the acceleration phases. The operator no longer needs to move the position of the cells, to compensate web movements after a reel change or a speed variation, during the production of a job. "We have really improved the comfort of our operators who no longer need to keep moving up and down the roto machine to put the cells back in position," says a delighted Mr. Charpentier. And while the reduction of manual intervention enables quick job change-overs, the new ergonomic characteristics of the Registron® S 6100 D make it easy to use. The touch-screen interface is intuitive and modern, and adjustments can be made quickly and easily. "A massive improvement on the previous version," says Benoit Charpentier.
Virtuous benefits
By anticipating errors, the quick and precise register control system provided by the Registron S 6100 D guarantees optimum product quality and significantly reduces waste. An essential characteristic for Breger Centre, which subscribes to the active Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) approach initiated by the Group: "Since our new Registron has been installed, we have noticed a 13% improvement in start-up waste," explains Benoit Charpentier. "We have saved several thousand m2 of film in just three months." Of course, reducing waste means saving raw materials, which are particularly costly in packaging, but, more than that, it generates a virtuous circle: less ink printed, fewer solvents consumed, less waste to process, etc. At Breger Centre, investment remains focused on one priority area, sustainable development.
Swiss Quality certified
As it already had a BOBST rotogravure machine, it was interesting for Breger Centre to invest in a BOBST register system and benefit from a team of professionals with a thorough understanding of the equipment. "Our contacts at BOBST reflect the quality of their machines," says Benoit Charpentier, who has nothing but praise for his supplier. With its Registron S 6100 D, Breger Centre guarantees the reliability of its printing system and reinforces the superior quality it promises to its customers. This means we can respond to the upward trend in quality standards demanded by brand owners.
Brodart Packaging Group – key figures :
5 production sites including Breger Centre
218 employees
100 million m2 annual production
www.bobst.com
