Schumacher Packaging Becomes Second Beta Site for Bobst Digital Press
The Schumacher Packaging plant in Ebersdorf, Germany, is the second beta-testing site to receive a BOBST digital printing press for corrugated board. Installation is under way and production will start at the end of July.
The Ebersdorf site, in central Germany, is the central hub of Schumacher Packaging, which has 13 sites across Germany, Poland and the Netherlands. Björn Schumacher, managing director of Schumacher Packaging, said, “We are very excited about the possibilities this BOBST press offers for opening up new market areas to us. We continuously invest in high-performance, state-of-the-art machines in all our production areas, which is one of the reasons we have been able to grow our business significantly over the past few years. Being a beta site for this digital solution gets us in on the ground floor of this revolutionary technology.”
Designed and built in Switzerland, the BOBST digital printing press for corrugated board prints images, graphics, codes and text, which can vary from sheet to sheet. Production speeds can reach 200 meters per minute, with a maximum sheet width of 1.3 meters. Applications include serialization, personalized packs, versioned packaging, customized corrugated products, and medium to short-runs of conventional boxes and displays. Incorporating Kodak Stream Inkjet Technology, the BOBST press delivers four-color digital print directly onto corrugated board and print run lengths can be from a single sheet to several thousand. The collaboration between BOBST and Kodak has produced a digital press which exhibits a combination of print quality, speed and versatility which will allows converters to better respond to an increasingly dynamic market.
Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO of Bobst Group, said, “The print technology choices that corrugated packaging manufacturers have had available to them, up until now, have determined the markets they can serve. Our new solution changes all this because one printing press can open up a huge range of markets, from long runs of boxes featuring variable data to very short runs of bespoke packs and displays – as well giving access to a large number of mid-volume opportunities. And all this is delivered at high speed, with close to offset quality. It means that corrugated packaging manufacturers will be able to enter all sorts of existing and new markets.”
The Kodak Stream Inkjet Technology used in the BOBST digital printing press has a number of characteristics that make it ideal for corrugated packaging production. This continuous inkjet printing technology provides greater throw distance compared to drop-on-demand inkjet, enabling print on a wide range of substrate thicknesses. Its high speed continuous jetting makes the press more responsive and able to print variable data at faster speeds. The technology uses water-based inks, which are food compliant, compatible with a wide range of coated and uncoated substrates and more environmentally friendly. The jetting modules are self-maintaining, and when they need to be replaced, can be refurbished and recycled with minimal waste.
