Kobusch-Sengewald Invest €3.5 million in 10 Colour Flexographic Printing Press
29 September 2005 13:02
New 10 colour flexographic printing press allows production 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
By virtue of the latest investment, a 10 colour flexographic printing press, and owing to an intelligent production shift system the packaging specialist Kobusch-Sengewald can now fall back on non-stop printing. The high-tech machine with an investment volume of €3.5 million is one of the latest of its kind and has been running at the Warburg production site since mid July.
"The new machine improves our position in the market considerably. Thus we are prepared to supply our customers with high-quality packaging films even quicker”, states Erwin Vahle, Managing Director of Kobusch-Sengewald. The machine of the type Flexpress 16S1 shortens the set-up times by two-thirds per inking unit. Therefore the set-up time of a printing job is drastically reduced, as ten inking units allow parallel operation: Those inking units which are idle during the production run can already be prepared for the next job. By this means the new printing press reduces unproductive work steps to a minimum, the time saved can be used for the efficient production.
A comparison shows the high performance of Flexpress 16S1: Previously seven flexographic printing presses were in use at the Warburg production site. Now with the new press five machines are operating. However the total printing capacity and the output has increased since then. The 10 colour flexographic printing press is also worth-while for quality purposes. It belongs to the latest generation of presses with servo-controlled drive technology. The repeat can be printed with a width of 1300 millimeters without displacements exactly to the millimeter and all this at a speed of more than 400 meters per minute – depending on the particular printing subject and material. This corresponds to a duplication of the previous production speed.
The non-stop-production was only made possible by the introduction of a modified production shift system in the printing department. Previously, the production ran 24 hours a day, six days a week, today the production is running 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The 54 employees at the printing department were previously divided into four teams, now they are divided into five teams. This way, not only all jobs are maintained, but what is more, the employees have got a job guarantee until end of December 2007. “This is our individual “Alliance for Jobs” (concept of the German government “Bündnis für Arbeit”), which could not have been developed without the cooperation with the workers’ council. We collaborated for the whole company’s sake”, underlines Erwin Vahle. “Normally jobs will be reduced if three machines are replaced by a new, modern one. Not in our case.” Moreover the company has employed seven more apprentices in the printing department. Since 1st August, 2005, all together 13 new trainees have started their apprenticeship at the manufacturer of flexible films – more than in the year before. Over 300 employees are working at the Warburg production site, more than 200 are working at Halle / Westphalia.
For more information on this company:
Kobusch-Sengewald - Flexible Food Packaging - Films, Pouches and Labels
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