This new Uteco Onyx is one of the widest flexible film presses in operation in the UK
A large investment in both new machinery and staff has been undertaken by Norfolk-based mailing film printer RR Flexo in a bid to expand its expertise further into the wide web sector. The company has just commissioned its fourth Uteco press and Neel Madsen went to see it in action.
First established in 1982 in Norwich, RR Flexo is today operating out of premises on the Threxton Industrial Estate near Thetford, in Norfolk, and offers a fast one stop service printing mailing films, as well as films for a variety of products, including tissue wraps, horticultural products, and bags. Founded by Ron Dodd and Richard Green – the two Rs of RR Flexo – the management today also includes Andrew Dodd as managing director, Richard Lambert, production director, and Mark Archer, who is the finance director.
Taking a chance
Reminiscing about the move to Threxton, Ron and Andrew Dodd look at the pictures on the wall in the boardroom, which show a disorganised warehouse full of the previous owner’s stock of office furniture. ‘When we took over these premises in 2008, they were in a right state,’ said Ron Dodd. ‘We had made the big decision to invest and expand after losing one of our biggest accounts, and standing in that messy hall was daunting to say the least.’
One of the first initiatives the company took to make up for the loss of the large account was to employ its first sales person, someone who brought with him a lot of experience in the tissue market and opened a few new doors. This in turn spurred the decision to move to the bigger premises and keep expanding.
Walking through the modern, well organised production hall today, it is easy to see just how much work the company has put into succeeding, and how it has gone from strength to strength by being prepared to invest and push hard, attacking new and unknown markets with gusto. ‘You have to be prepared to try and fail, not just sit back,’ said Andrew Dodd. ‘We took a bit of a gamble and managed to get the financial backing, and it paid off.’
On the floor
The move from Norwich included an old Schiavi geared press and two Uteco Coral 675 wide web CI presses. The latter two are still running today complemented by an eight colour Uteco Onyx 876 GL bought in 2009, and the latest addition, the brand new eight colour Uteco Onyx 812, installed earlier this year.
Supplied by Eurograv Limited with whom RR Flexo has a long and well established relationship, the new 1,650 mm wide press has a repeat up to 1,250 mm and comes with full sleeve change for both printing plates and anilox. It is fitted with fully automatic 1,000 mm unwinds and rewinds, with full inline slitting capability and runs at speeds up to 400 m/min. The anilox have been supplied by Sandon Global and ALT.
Pressure and impression setting is fully automatic with Uteco’s proprietory Touch&Go (automatic anilox to plate pressure setting) and Kiss&Go (plate to drum auto impression) systems. Registration is performed with Click&Drag on the Grafikscan 2200 defect detection system from Grafikontrol.
The Kiss&Go system performs the automatic set up of the printing pressure at the start of every new job. Before that, the Touch&Go function automatically sets the initial contact position of each print unit with very little material waste. The system works directly by reading the printed colour on the substrate, adjustment the printing pressure with high accuracy without any intervention from the operator.
The production hall is now home to four Uteco presses
The system is composed by a compact reading unit, which is installed just after the last printing station on the central drum, and by a processing unit. The reading unit performs a scan of each colour printed and forwards the data to the processing unit, which uses a dedicated algorithm to process and establish the optimal printing point while controlling the positioning of the anilox and printing cylinders through a high speed interface connection.
More investment
Investment in other equipment to deal with the increased productivity include a new 1,650 mm wide six camera version of the Camis Irisleeve platemounter, developed especially for RR Flexo. This is the third Camis mounter that the company has bought from Eurograv over the years, and it comes fitted with a 900 mm wide Taper-Slide tape application system.
In the production hall, a large number of plate mounting sleeves sit on their racks. Most of these come from another Italian manufacturer, Rossini Spa. Andrew Dodd commented, ‘We have tried other makes of sleeves, but they just don’t last as long as the Everstat sleeve from Rossini. We are also trialling Polymount’s Twinlock system at the moment supplied to us by Graway. This was brought in especially for a weekly glossy job.’
There has equally been a significant investment in staff over the years, which has grown from the 22 when the new premises were bought, to 36 today. The latest addition is six new trainees, taken on to work on the new press.
Platemaking takes place next door at Vieflex, which is run by managing director, Paul Evans. The equipment here includes a Dantex DW4835 plate processing unit, a CDI Spark and a Flint nyloflex Combi processing unit.
In the family
The four generations of Uteco presses standing side by side at RR Flexo clearly displays the development in press technology from the Italian manufacturer over the years, from the old six colour Coral presses which use about 1,100 metres of substrate on set up, to the new Onyx which performs the same process with under 200 metres of waste.
‘At 1,650 mm, the new Onyx press at RR Flexo is one of the widest presses in operation in the flexible films market in the country and it gives the company huge scope to take on work in many different markets,’ said Eurograv director, Mike Attard, who sold the press to the company. ‘We first started working with RR Flexo in 1997, and it is a great example of a small family run flexo printing company that has benefitted over the years from Uteco technology and knowhow.’
Andrew Dodd said, ‘When we first made the decision to buy this new press, we sat down and discussed which way to go, and the answer was to hit as many markets as we could with our new printing capabilities. We are now quoting for jobs in markets that are completely new to us and it is a steep learning curve, but one which we are confidently climbing by using our vast experience in the mailing films market and applying our skills to new tasks. We do enjoy pushing ourselves a bit and the new Uteco press has opened up so many new opportunities.’
