Essentra Packaging Completes Anilox Standardisation with Cheshire Anilox

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”.’