SUN Automation Group General Manager EMEA, Rob Dal Lago, examines how recent print innovations are benefiting the corrugated industry…
This year, SUN Automation celebrates its 30th anniversary – three decades of providing corrugated box plants worldwide with technologies that help to increase production quality, efficiency and profitability. We have seen many amazing innovations since SUN launched its first product, the Extend-O-Feed® Lead Edge Feeder, which revolutionised feeding with increased speed, reduced feed roll crush and jam-free operation.
Most recently, SUN Automation is celebrating new European installations of the innovative AccuPrint® chambered ink system, which meets three key commercial requirements for the corrugated industry: significantly improved print quality, increased sustainability and reduced plant costs.
AccuPrint features a reinvented chamber doctor blade system. Incorporated in the new design is a wider throat to give a larger ‘ink wetting area’ than comparable systems, ensuring that print quality is maintained even at high speeds. Relative to conventional flexographic printing systems, AccuPrint can achieve up to 85% savings on recovered ink prior to colour changeover, alongside a 50% reduction in set-up time. The system also utilises efficient PLC controlled Electric Peristaltic Pumps which are considerably more cost-effective in operation than pneumatic.
BOX CLEVER
European corrugated box makers are under ever-increasing pressure to prove their sustainability credentials and meet regulatory
The CorrStream in all its printer glory
requirements on reducing waste, and SUN Automation is doing everything it can to assist the cause. AccuPrint reduces the water required for wash-up by up to 50%, bringing multiple benefits of lower utility bills, reduced waste and saving resources. In addition, downtime is reduced through clever design features such as tool-less blade and end seal change, resulting in quicker and easier maintenance.
We’re very proud of our revolutionary new AccuPrint system, which has been developed specifically to enable superior graphics and thus aid the box plant’s competitive edge whilst they decide on their approach to digital print solutions. Another key element is that the system is able to be adapted to virtually every type of OEM machine. Users of two-roll systems in particular are amazed by the refinements that AccuPrint brings to their operations.
There’s a sea-change within the European corrugated industry, driven primarily by discount retailers spearheading the trend for quality shelf-ready packaging. In the past, the majority of boxes in the supply chain were used solely for transportation so a two-roll printer was quite adequate. Now the bar is being raised almost daily and top quality print is an expectation from retailers. AccuPrint meets that expectation, especially for those box makers still some way from making the leap into single-pass, high-output digital technology. We are delighted to see the system make its mark so readily in Europe.
ALWAYS THE SUN
AccuPrint is just one component in SUN Automation’s approach to solving customers’ feeding, printing and converting challenges, using
CorrStream feeder
both digital and flexographic technology. Serving equipment manufacturers (OEM customers) as well as direct end-users (box-makers), SUN Automation continues to innovate by developing solutions to many operational challenges, recently launching the MicroGrind for top anvil machinery, and reengineering the rotary die cutter with the SUN625. This machine increases productivity and container quality while reducing maintenance challenges and floor space with its vertically opening architecture.
There are significant developments under way in the corrugated sector and many box plants are poised to invest to gain competitive edge but, with such revolutionary progress being made in digital printing, are undecided on the best way forward. That’s where SUN Automation comes in, offering a unique new approach called ‘Total Print Solutions’.
IN THE STREAM
Not only can we offer the cutting-edge CorrStream® range of high-output single pass digital printers, but we also have 30 years’ experience
AccuPrint in action
in retrofitting innovative technologies to transform corrugated equipment from the inside out. We can match our portfolio – which also includes flexographic ink systems for machinery from almost every OEM – to a box plant’s objectives and, crucially, their budget to help them improve quality and performance, in order to be competitive whilst they manoeuvre the fast approaching digital path ahead of them.
SUN Automation is in the unique position to provide for and support corrugated customers throughout this groundbreaking journey. We believe that no other supplier to the corrugated sector can offer this unrivalled combination of digital and analogue systems choice, expertise and customer service.
www.sunautomation.com
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