Corrugated packaging company VPK Group has installed a FlexoCleanerBrush from Baldwin Technology Company at its factory in Halden, Norway.
The new system, which automatically cleans and dries corrugated printing plates in less than four minutes, has been added to VPK’s 2.1m, six-colour Göpfert Ovation High Board Line flexographic printer.
‘We are excited about the advanced cleaning automation now enabled at our new plant,’ said Robert Stade, project and technical manager of VPK Group. ‘Besides not having to stop production for manual cleaning, we can now regularly have multiple plates cleaned more efficiently, both during and between print runs. As a result, we have increased our production capacity and dramatically decreased our downtime.’
VPK Group opted for the installation after an independent study was conducted to validate the capacity of Baldwin’s FlexoCleanerBrush system. The study measured all performance data and validated that the automated system could fully clean and dry all printing plates in less than four minutes and pick hickeys in seconds.
‘The FlexoCleanerBrush is truly an innovation for post-print flexographic printing onto corrugated boards—there is nothing even remotely comparable on the market,’ said Lee Simmonds, regional sales manager at Baldwin. ‘Thanks to the elimination of micro-stops mid-run to clean plates, print jobs are set up faster from print run to print run, and as a result, the system reduces lost hours over a week to just minutes. Further, the high print quality is maintained and even further enhanced.’
