Packaging Solutions
Edenbridge based, the Alexir Partnership has become the latest high quality UK packaging producer to invest in a highly specified Rapida 106. The press, an eight colour with two coating units was installed into the company’s factory early in 2020, just as the pandemic was beginning.
The Alexir Partnership has been operating for over 30 years from two production sites in the southeast of England. It produces high quality cartons for well known high street brands and for a range of market segments which include food, healthcare and FMCG.
The company selected the Rapida 106 after extensive research, field visits and print tests at all the major press manufacturers. The press was specially configured to cope not only with current work types but also to allow to allow it to target new markets and to offer the most advanced print options to clients.
Alexir factory manager Andy Crack stated, ‘We have become incredibly busy since the press was installed and production has increased by 25% since 2019. The pandemic and the trend for plastic reduction has created a big increase in demand on our carton production volumes. Managing the installation, reorganising the factory to improve the workflow and the restrictions on staffing during this time has been a challenge but we have coped really well. The print quality from the press is very good and due to the quality assurance tools supplied with the press we have experienced a big reduction in quality issues.’
He continued, ‘We took one press out and the Rapida has coped not only with the work from that machine but also a big increase in additional demand for our production capacity as well. We have had to invest in new pile turning equipment to keep the press fed with fresh pallets and a good deal of our work is now printed on both sides.’
The Rapida 106 is a special configuration press called a ‘Plus 1’. It features seven printing units and a coater, two drying units followed by another additional printing unit and a final coater unit allowing the widest range of effects and finishes to be produced on a press. The press has a top speed of 18,000 sheets per hour and can print with both UV and conventional inks and coatings on a special sheet size of 780 x 1060 mm. Additionally, the press comes equipped with a whole host of features that enable the highest of performance and quality levels
The stock range the press can handle is up to 1.2 mm thick and additionally for non-stop running of the thicker stocks produced at Alexir Packaging the press is equipped with an extensive logistics package for both the feeder and delivery and a press raise of 900 mm. To aid feeding at the highest speeds, the press is equipped with Koenig & Bauer’s Sensoric Infeed System (SIS). For food production, the press has been supplied with food safe oils and greases and will run with food safe inks and coatings.
For rapid changeovers, the plate changing is fully automatic, with all plates changed in less than two minutes and coating forms are also changed semi-automatically in less than one and a half minutes. Colour control is via QualiTronic ColorControl in line colour measurement system which automatically updates the colour values after every tenth sheet. For assessment and scoring of the printed results against the requirements of the ISO 12647-2 standard, the press is also equipped with QualityPass software. This software will also provide a trend of the CIE Lab values for each job alongside a whole host of other reports for colour and quality.
To provide an extra level of quality to the work produced on the new press it is equipped with QualiTronic PDF which enables comparison of the printed material to an original PDF. Every single sheet produced for each run is compared against the original during running and the operator receives early warning of any defects found by the system.
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