Interview with Benny Landa on Komori Strategic Partnership

Digital printing for Folding Cartons has been in the news a lot over the past year; just look at the number of articles placed here as proof. The success seen by HP Indigo with its 30000 carton press and even by Xeikon with its 3500 series press are evidence that the industry is looking to address unmet needs in the supply chain.

Landa Corporation has done its share of news making on that front with the announcement that its first beta installs will be the S10FC folding carton press in the fall of 2014. On Friday morning, November 1, 2013, Landa announced a strategic relationship with Komori for the manufacture of the transport systems for all of Landa’s sheetfed systems, the first being the S10FC.

After receiving the press release early in the morning, I had an opportunity to speak with Benny to get a bit more information on this topic. I am not rehashing the entire press release but rather, giving a bit more depth on some of important issues Benny and I discussed.

Why the Sheetfed Systems?
Feeding large sheets of carton board or paper through a printing press at upwards of 20,000 sheets per hour is no simple task; Benny described it as “a combination of art and science.” He went on to say that reinventing the wheel made no sense, so partnering with a company who had perfected the process was the way to go. The sheetfed systems that were shown at drupa last year were based on a Komori sheet handling frame. Landa and Komori have worked together for the past five years and arrived at the drupa stage of development together. However, as the company defined its full rollout plan, Landa needed to choose the long-term partner for the sheet handling systems. Landa evaluated all of the major players, and based on selection criteria (outlined in the press release) decided on Komori. “It was a reaffirmation that we chose the right company in the first place,” said Benny. I cannot help but think that the financial stability of Komori versus some of the other prospects came into play as well. In our discussion, Benny used the throughput value of 13,000 sheets per hour for the S10FC, which is what the original (drupa era) specifications listed for CMYK printing. At PRINT, the number of 6,500 sph was used for the beta release version, which will be for extended color gamut printing of CMYK +OVG. This referral to the 13,000 number infers to me that Landa is still looking at that number as a target for the system.