To control the consistency of printing jobs across all its presses, Essentra Packaging has completed an anilox standardisation programme with Cheshire Anilox.

Essentra’s goals were to achieve customer specified digital colour targets, eradicate UV spitting, and achieve outstanding results on HD Flexo.

The packaging manufacturer produces more than 267 million labels each month, with 19 flexo label presses across five European plants. With a high  demand for high printing quality, the company has a huge need for process control and consistency.

Anilox standardisation is an ideal approach for optimising the interaction between ink, plate and anilox because it reduces both the setup and the variability normally acquainted with process and combination printing.

After tests and measurements with the Microdynamics volume measurement system, Essentra decided to implement Maxflo+ into all their printing processes as this engraving gave them the best performance by far.

‘Apart from the obvious cost savings benefits, standardizing anilox rolls gives press staff ownership of the rolls. First, each press has the right number of rolls for its work. Staff members are aware these rolls belong to their press; they are responsible for taking care of and maintaining them,’ said Sonia Arcos, technical sales director at Cheshire Anilox Technology. ‘A reduced anilox inventory will be also easier to control and measure, ensuring print consistency across the plant.’

‘Press operators love to have their anilox roll inventory standardised. Roll standardisation takes the guesswork out of finding the right roll for that particular job,’ production manager at Essentra Packaging continued.

‘Standardising anilox rollers has significantly decreased set-up times and waste. Each hour a press sits idle costs money. By each press having its own rolls and standard volumes, changeover times are decreased resulting in more jobs produced per hour and greater profits to the bottom line. By standardising anilox roll inventory, Essentra Packaging  has ‘cut set-up time and waste in half”.’

Cheshire Anilox Technology remains open to support printers in the critical food and medical supply chains. As we continue to monitor the latest updates and information about the global COVID-19 outbreak, we are taking additional measures to ensure we safeguard the health of our employees and preserve our ability to operate. Over the past weeks, we have been taking actions to help prevent infections at our production site. Cheshire has a pandemic preparedness plan that has been implemented, and we are being proactive in our approaches to ensure business continuity.

Currently all functions at our UK production site remain operational. Our worldwide agents and distributors are working hard in their regions to continue to operate and provide the local service and support as needed.

Our Account Managers and Technical Team are available to help during this disruptive time. If there are conditions that arise within your operations that require someone on our technical staff to be on-site, please contact your Account Manager. Our team will work with you to ensure business continuity.

While it is more difficult to confirm available logistics and delivery dates at this time, we believe our manufacturing and logistics capabilities will keep us well positioned to work through these challenges.

We remain committed to providing the superior service and support that our customers have come to expect of our company throughout this situation.

Cheshire Anilox technology has announced a new partnership with Stockport County Football Club. The sponsorship deal will see the anilox manufacturer’s branding appearing on the front of the new 2019-20 season away kits. The club, which is fondly referred to as ‘The Hatters’, will be playing in the 2019-20 National League and FA Cup.

For Cheshire Anilox Technology this will be their 28th year in business. Production Director Philip Smith said: “This is a truly honourable and proud landmark for me and my Dad Paul (company owner), to become sponsors of Stockport County, the club we’ve loved and supported for many years.

“My Dad first watched County as a boy in the 1960s and took me to my first games during the 1990/91 season. I went to my first Wembley game against Port Vale in 1993, but it was the following season where, as a young boy, I was eternally captivated by watching my heroes under Danny Bergara.”

As County enjoyed success during this golden era, Cheshire Anilox Technology were also starting to make a name for themselves as they rapidly became one of the UKs leading manufacturers of Anilox rollers and sleeves for the flexographic printing industry, expanding  their global network of 45 distributors to supply to over 90 countries.

Many customers use their Anilox rollers to print labels and packaging for leading supermarkets, distillers and retailers alongside other specialist accounts.

Philip said: “On a personal note, seeing our logo on the players’ shirts and gaining exposure to thousands of fans is very exciting and a marker of just how far we’ve come as a business. But the overriding sentiment behind our sponsorship is that it’s nice to be able to give back to the club which has given us countless wonderful memories and times over the years.

“Simultaneously the decision to become partners with County at this time is an assurance of the good running and commitment from the directors and wider backroom staff who have been very welcoming in making us feel part of the club.”

The deal will also take the County name into untapped markets overseas, as many of Cheshire’s overseas customers are huge football fans and are very excited to hear of the sponsorship. They’ll be inviting many of them to Edgeley Park this year, gifting shirts for them to take home and hoping to capture hearts and minds abroad, raising the club’s profile internationally.

Commenting on the new partnership, County’s Commercial Manager Simon Dawson said: “To have the Cheshire brand on our alternate away kit is fantastic news for Stockport County. It’s even better when the company is owned and managed by such long-standing, die-hard County fans. We are proud to have Cheshire Anilox Technology on board and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship.”

The new   11000sq. ft.   facility will be used primarily for CNC machining which it will enable the company to expand their anilox roll manufacturing capacity to support increased customer demands. The new plant is scheduled to become fully operational by the end of June 2019.

 

Beyond the new machining facility, Cheshire  continues to expand its manufacturing capacity with the addition of new equipment. Over the past 12 months, the company has purchased a new CNC machine, a semi-automatic grinder and new interferometry volume measurement equipment for  high precision and consistent Anilox volumetric control.

 

“We are excited about the growth we’ve experienced ,” said Sonia Arcos, Technical Sales Director for Cheshire, “Opening an additional facility in Manchester, along with investing in more machining and quality control equipment demonstrates our ability to evolve and increase the services we provide to our customers as we capture share in this ever evolving  market.”

Due to continued growth Cheshire Anilox Technology has expanded  their roll manufacture capability with the addition of a new state of the art CNC machine. The machine was installed in April 2018 and it is in full production.The new machine has greatly increased the existing manufacturing capacity and allowed continued growth in the flexo and offset markets.
Cheshire Anilox rollers are produced entirely in house. This allows us to manufacture standard and custom rollers more efficiently and cost-effectively while maintaining the highest quality. The new investment ensures we are able to continue to provide the most accurate and precise anilox roll manufacture in the market.

A more recent flexo enhancement is the effect of tactile coatings. These coatings provide a two-dimensional feel to the package without the use of embossing or expensive tooling. This application has traditionally been done with the use of a rotary screen unit. The new engraving is specially designed to reproduce the tactile effect of rotary screen on to the print or packaging. Tactile varnish will require a high volume anilox that will transfer large amounts of coating. This ground-breaking engraving technology offers the highest release of lacquers and varnishes available in Flexo printing.  Its unique cell profile also offers a more uniform coverage which is critical to achieve a high gloss finish.

The new engraving has been extensively tested in close cooperation with leading printers and converters worldwide and the results achieved have been extraordinary.

Please contact Cheshire Anilox Technology to discuss your project or application.

Download TactiLox Brochure 

In order to support its continued growth in flexible packaging and corrugated markets Cheshire Anilox Technology, a leading manufacturer of laser engraved ceramic Anilox rollers has recently completed the installation of a new ALE fibre laser. The new laser is equipped with the latest hardware and software technology to produce a range of engraving configurations from 25 to 2,000 lines per inch. The new machine will allow the Manchester based company to create a wide range of bespoke engravings to meet the high quality demands of printers. It features a Custom Pulse to provide graphical control and design of bespoke cell shapes. It also features the most advanced engraving modes that offer the highest control over cell shape and engraving consistency.  The cells produced are more open and smoother, offering greater resistance against clogging, increase volume and ink transfer capacity.

It offers greater and absolute engraving consistency with less than 1% variation across the roll surface. Cell definition and uniformity produced by the new machine is superior to previous models.

The possibility of limitless cell designs combined with faster engraving speeds offer a wide range of flexibility and versatility to the Company. Cheshire Anilox will be able to provide customised engravings to overcome common print problems currently faced by flexo printers.

Cheshire’s latest addition follows significant investment across its global operations. Paul Smith, Managing Director, comments, “Once again we are making a significant investment to ensure we can meet the needs of some of the world’s most prestigious printers. The highly-specified ALE Fibre laser we have installed will allow us to offer the highest quality and consistency of engravings. We are committed to continue to strengthen and grow our business and the addition of the latest laser allows us to address these priorities.”

“We are devoted to enhancing our equipment for the benefit of our customers,” said Sonia Arcos Technical Sales Director of Cheshire Anilox technology. “This machine will allow our customers to have more flexibility in their packaging designs and achieve higher print quality.”

Learn how to select the right Anilox for each print application, read the full article published in labels and Labelling issue 6 here.

Read the inside story “World beats a path to Cheshire for Anilox Service Excellence”