Catapult Print Boosts Capacity With Next-Gen Automation
Catapult has added a second Ravenwood Com 500 Coater. | Credit: Catapult Print
Catapult Print, a US label printing business, has invested in new machinery for its Florida plant, continuing to support customers’ increased need for shorter lead times and a more responsive service.
As part of a strategy for optimizing efficiency and ensuring capacity, Catapult has focused on three key areas.
The company has overhauled their plate room, updating all their old equipment with next generation kit and automation that will enable platemaking in half the time. This means that Catapult will be able to keep lead times even lower for customers, while completing all platemaking activity in-house to keep costs down as much as possible.
Catapult has procured state of the art flexo plate equipment and software from Esko, which has been designed to streamline workflows, amplify throughput, reduce costs, and drive efficiency. The company is now using AI enabled equipment to calculate the most efficient plate layouts, saving time, avoiding waste, and reducing cost.
Catapult has also taken delivery of a second Ravenwood Com 500 Coater, making the company the only label printer in the US to deploy two of these machines simultaneously. The new coater doubles Catapult’s capacity and enables the printing company to offer customers a choice of traditional or glue gap linerless labels with its Linerless+ service.
The advanced Com 500 Coater enables simultaneous application of pressure sensitive adhesive and UV curable silicone lacquer, with a Nordson adhesive pre-melting and delivery system that allows for to up to 12 slot heads with screw adjustments for glue stripe widths. It can accommodate variable line widths from 3mm to 45mm, and slits and rewinds multiple lanes into finished reels, in a single pass. With a coating speed of up to 130 m/minute, the new coater supports Catapult’s technology-led production efficiency, and silicone is cured instantly via the UV curing system.
A fully automated core cutting machine completes Catapult’s trilogy of equipment investment to help them support greater agility for customers. Enabling Catapult to produce bespoke core sizes in-house, this equipment uses an efficient and cost-effective process that will contribute further marginal gains for keeping pricing as low as possible and reducing lead times.
CEO and co-founder of Catapult, Lewis Cook, commented: “At a time when it seems the price of everything is going up, we’re committed to keeping costs as low as possible for our customers. Investing in our capabilities to increase capacity, slash lead times, deliver on quality, and remain agile enables us to keep our promises.
“Our customers are telling us that they can’t afford to wait weeks for delivery and that we’re the only partner that understands the urgency and pressure they’re working under. We want to mitigate the impact of current challenging market conditions as much as possible by being a true partner for our customers, continually finding new ways to deliver value, ensure capacity at short notice and keep lead times and costs as low as possible to help them stay ahead in a competitive marketplace.”
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