Manufacturer of rotary dies, flexible dies and rotary tooling, RotoMetrics opened the doors to its European headquarters in Aldridge, near Birmingham, at the end of September. More than 200 visitors and 20 suppliers attended the first of what is to become a biennial event. Neel Madsen reports.

Under the headline, ‘Labels and beyond’, RotoMetrics UK hosted an open house event at its facility in the Midlands and welcomed customers from across Europe to a programme of presentations from its own staff and other key suppliers to the industry.

Dr Peter Emerson, recently appointed European managing director, spoke of how RotoMetrics is planning to offer a revised flexible die portfolio as the synergies and technologies brought into the company by the acquisition of Gerhardt International A/S come to the fore. He also said that the mission is to provide a market leading service and that the objective is to tailor production to demand and not capacity.

 

Words from the host

Likening it to chopping wood, the exact science of die-cutting was discussed and explained in detail by Bo Meyer, European technical director. Having worked with Gerhardt for over 22 years, Mr Meyer is an authority on the subject, and he described how the need to have control of the die-cutting process has increased as the thickness of liners has decreased.

Chris Green, European business director, discussed opportunities in new markets. A team has been looking at the medical, hygiene, packaging and industrial markets with products such as mobile phones, printed electronics and fuel cells offering potential. For packaging, the folding cartons market in the BRIC countries is growing and for ‘food-to-go’ box cartons are outselling plastic by three to one. The company is keen to use the information and knowledge gathered to help converters push their business forward.

The attendees were also taken on a live production tour of the factory seeing first hand how flexible and rotary dies are produced from raw steel to finished die. The 82,000 square foot facility was purpose built 14 years ago and employs 200 staff who work in a two and three shift pattern. Manufacturing continues 24/7 outputting dies for anything from labels and folding carton to tea bags and automotive parts. All processes are done in-house with nothing outsourced at any point.

 

Words from the partners

Other presentations from the host company covered topics such as die-cutting to synthetic liners, and the packaging and medical markets. This was interspersed with talks from partner suppliers.

Mark Andy’s international sales director, Mike Russell, spoke about ‘Advancements in flexo technology’ pointing out that die-cutting remains the single biggest bottleneck in inline converting today. He also looked to the future predicting a bright one for UV LED and that the level of automation of the process will continue to rise.

Managing director of Sandon Global, John Millington, presented the company’s Smart Anilox System (SAS) developed to standardise products and ensure increased print quality, efficient production and reduced inventory. He explained that the relationship with co-suppliers is key and to be a leading brand investment in R&D is essential.

‘The purpose of FINAT is to bring you closer to the European label community,’ said the association’s president, Kurt Walker in his speech. He explained the foundation and purpose of FINAT as well as its many activities, including competitions, committees, support, seminars and publications that are on offer to all member suppliers to the label industry. 

Andy Beesley, Dantex business development director, showed the company’s waterwash plate technology, Aquaflex Optima, demonstrating real time plate production within 35 minutes after imaging, with the use of video images showing each step.

Account manager, Andrew McKerlie, explained how the Label Traxx system can help the printer increase productivity, boost sales and reduce overheads. He said, ‘By tweaking all areas by a very small amount we can have a big influence on the end result,’ and presented a case study for illustration.

From Paragon Inks’ UK & international sales manager, Amanda Jones, came a discussion, which looked at the changes in prices in the inks market over the last five years, the implications of buying on price alone and how you can improve your bottom line through ink. She explained that changes in pricing have brought down today’s margins for ink manufacturers to just 4% whereas historically they were around 20%.

Matthew Burton, executive sales representative UK & Middle East, AB Graphic International, gave a presentation entitled, ‘The weird and wacky world of converting’ focused on the niche applications that the company has been involved in, such as booklet labels, fridge magnets and mouse mats amongst others. He also touched on ABG’s vast experience in handling substrates in roll form, its new automatic die loading and unloading device and his vision of the future for the digital label printing line.

The table top exhibitors further included Bar Graphics, TTS, Herma, IST (UK) Ltd, Nilpeter, Omet, Gallus, UEI Group, JM Heaford, Focus Label Machinery, Zeller+Gmelin, Edale, Smag, Print-Tech Solutions and Ritrama.

 

Great feedback

In his opening remarks, Neil Lilly, customer service director, said one of the reasonings behind the open house is that there is not enough opportunity to bring the industry together in general. Speaking to some of the suppliers after the event, it is clear that they see value in this type of industry gathering.

Jamie Hyde, sales manager Zeller+Gmelin UK, said, ‘This type of small event is a valuable way of presenting our company to a lot of potential and existing customers in an environment where we can have their full attention to discuss ink needs. I am sure we will continue to support this format of event in the future as our own seminar held last year and RotoMetrics’ European event have shown a very good return on investment.’  

‘To support the event was our key reason for being at the open house, during which time over the three days, we met new contacts, caught up with existing contacts and customers, and came away with some good enquiries. A very successful event all round,’ commented Simon Mitchell, joint MD of IST (UK) Ltd.

Nigel Heaford, international sales manager, JM Heaford, said, ‘It was good to attend an event where leading manufacturers, supply and service companies are presenting their latest developments for the fast moving narrow web/label industry. It was encouraging to see a good attendance from companies that see a value in making time to meet suppliers and investigate opportunities from working together and possible investment.’

Andy Beesley said, ‘The RotoMetrics event was very customer focused, professionally staged within a relaxed atmosphere and very informative. It was also a great opportunity to meet with our fellow suppliers to discuss how we are all addressing the challenges within our industry and how many of us appear to be bucking the trend with many installations going ahead.’