CUPSZ, a Netherlands-based manufacturer of printed carton board coffee cups, has added water-based flexo print to its existing digital printing capability, investing in a 430mm six-colour Evolution Series E5 press from Mark Andy at its Tilburg plant.
The press was installed in January 2023 and allows CUPSZ to better respond to larger orders that were problematic on its toner-based digital presses due to slow web speeds and cost. It said that runs up to 25,000 printed cups made sense for digital, but larger volumes were creating problems.
Having had experience of narrow web UV flexo inks and lacquers, CUPSZ said it was keen to invest in water-based flexo to help meet ever-changing food packaging laws. The press was purchased through Mark Andy’s Benelux agent Packtion.
‘Mark Andy’s water-based presses are not adapted UV lines like the other manufacturers, and this really showed up in the confidence the operators had in changing jobs in five minutes with only 50m of waste,’ said Daan Willemsz, one of the two brothers who founded the company.
The Evolution Series E5 press is capable of printing at 230m/min, though CUPSZ is typically running 350 to 460-micron board at around 120/min, which is ‘significantly more productive than the digital presses’, said Daan’s brother Michiel Willemsz. It comes with remote diagnostics, auto- and pre-register and a BST vision system. Also installed with the press are a Vetaphone corona treater, web cleaner and a VPM 400 video plate mounter.
Michiel Willemsz concluded, ‘We like the level of automation it has because that makes it easy to set up and run and maintain good quality register. But there is nothing over-complex about it. What’s there is for the benefit of the person who is running it, and not a demonstration of how much technology can be added for the sake of it. It’s a very stable press, which is essential when you’re running heavier materials.’
