Danish polyethylene packaging supplier Trioplast Nyborg has halved setup times to two hours after modernising its four-colour Fischer & Krecke common-impression flexo press with TRESU Ancillary's FlexiPrint chambered doctor blade and F10iCon ink supply system.
The TRESU installation provides an automated, controlled, enclosed flow of ink and coating from the bucket to the anilox roll cells, without leakage, escape of fumes or contamination with air.
Trioplast carried out the refurbishment on the 1650mm press, which mainly handles shrink-wrap and stretch-hood film for logistics end-uses, to meet the increasing demand for shorter, more frequent orders – a consequence of customers cutting stockholding levels to one month's supply.
Frank Jørgensen, operations manager at Trioplast, comments: "We recognised that the key to maintaining productivity was to ensure the presses ran with minimal manual intervention, material waste and changeover time. The ink supply offered obvious potential for improvement because the existing open trays allowed excessive evaporation and required constant replenishment with solvent."
"We had already experienced significant performance and safety improvements as a result of installing the TRESU systems on two six colour CI presses last year. It was a natural step for us to repeat this investment, and it is meeting expectations: we have eliminated the escape of vapours, cut cleaning to half an hour per printing station, and achieved uniform, clean ink transfer at speeds of up to 110m/min."
The F10 iCon circulates the ink at stable, easily adjustable viscosity, pressure and temperature levels, and completes an ink change within ten minutes. It also stores flow settings of every colour on each job, which can be automatically recalled without the need for manual data entry. This brings significant setup efficiencies to Trioplast, which has a database of several hundred PANTONE® spot colours, used for reproducing many customers' liveries.
The FlexiPrint doctor blade system ensures uniform ink transfer directly to the anilox cells, without air being trapped at fast speeds. Pressure is adjusted to exact levels required to form a wall of ink at the point where rotating cells meet the blade, preventing air contamination and foaming. And because the sealed environment prevents air contamination, long-term storage of leftover ink is possible, for example over a shut-down period. Doctor blades are positioned at an angle with the anilox to minimise wear, prolonging operational life, and, thanks to the 'E Line' clamping system, are replaceable within one minute.
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