Feature in Folding Carton Industry
When Beatus Cartons took the decision to invest in a Rapida 106 7 colour plus double coating press. It was our first significant investment in capital equipment for over 20 years. The business, whilst always successful, was about to make a huge jump in technology and performance with brand new press manufacturer. Naturally there was some apprehension behind our 81-year-old family run folding carton printing business. However, after overcoming a steep learning curve and a global pandemic, the business has undergone a major transformation in performance and quality and promises much more for the future.
Our Managing Director Clive Stinchcombe states: ‘The investment in the press is the best decision we have ever made. We are +40% above the previous production plan for the existing press and we have been able to both win new business, and secure our existing clients due to the technology that we have on the press. Without the investment in a new press it is debatable that we would have been considered for some of these contracts. After a difficult period during the pandemic we are now anticipating that we will see growth of between 10% and 12.5% in 2021 and new doors are open to us now we that have the right equipment in place. He adds: ‘We have improved our product portfolio, won new customers and made significant capacity improvements.’
He continues: ‘Observing the productivity improvements that the new press has brought has changed our thinking about the future for Beatus Cartons. We were sceptical that we could achieve the levels of performance suggested by Koenig & Bauer but we are very pleased to say that we are achieving those numbers now. We will never wait another 20 years before investing in new press technology again’
Project Manager Andrew Butler adds: ‘Once the operators adapted to a new way of working with the press technology and its colour control system they became very confident that they could “print to the numbers.” Make readies have improved and running speeds are much higher due to the confidence on our short run jobs as the QualiTronic ColorControl system removes the doubts that the operators have and updates the colour values far quicker than they can adjust manually.’
He adds: ‘Our operators now prefer to run the Rapida as they are very confident that they can perform all the demanding tasks required of them at much higher speeds. Our quality throughout the company has improved as all jobs are approached in the same way and we have a large amount of repeat work which is exceptionally good on the Rapida as we recall all the previous settings and load them back onto the press. We are normally in colour within a few sheets.’
On the subject of support Mr Butler states: ‘We’ve never encountered a problem with the availably of engineers in the event of a call-out and we use Koenig & Bauer’s online service support which ensures that when we do have a problem we get support online very quickly’.
To read the full article, why not head over to The Packaging Portal and read this months edition of Folding Carton Industry. https://www.thepackagingportal.com
