2011 No.72 - Komori

User Profile
User Profile
Building success as partners
Rohrer Corporation, Wadsworth, Ohio, US
manufacturers offer convertible technologies
that flip the sheet to print the bottom side, but
Adkins believes this convertibility creates a
weak link in the system making it wear quickly
and require frequent maintenance.
The new perfector is Rohrer’s fifth Komori
press, and Adkins states that over the years his
company has been “weeding out” its presses
from other manufacturers as the relationship
with Komori continues to grow.
Rohrer Corporation is home to an LSX-840RP [8/2] + C + Extended Delivery with UV — the first of its kind in the world.
Rohrer Corporation, headquartered in
Wadsworth, Ohio, with facilities in Georgia
and Illinois, believes in providing attentive
and responsive service to its customers, and
it expects the same from its suppliers. The
company specializes in producing highvisibility
display packaging for consumer
products. Such packaging includes blister
packs, skin packaging, thermoformed blisters
and clamshells, and a variety of other, similar
packaging styles that incorporate printed cards
and thermoformed plastics to show consumers
exactly what they’re getting. Traditionally, the
hardware industry has been a key market for
Rohrer, but the company now serves several
industries including consumer cosmetics and
personal care.
Komori listens
A longtime Komori partner, Rohrer has always
been interested in the engineering changes
and new features Komori has designed for
its presses over the years. Rohrer enjoys the
fact that, as a customer, it can make solid
suggestions from field experience on ways
to make each new press more powerful than
the model before it — and Komori listens.
Only months ago, Rohrer took delivery of
the first-of-its-kind Komori LSX-840RP [8/2]
perfecting press, designed to serve Rohrer’s
very particular printing needs. The company
already had — and is keeping — earlier Komori
RP press models, but the new 41" press with
8-over-2 color capabilities adds all the highly
automated time and cost-saving technologies
of Komori’s SX series.
“We were in need of additional capabilities
and capacity,” says Scot Adkins, president
and CEO of Rohrer. “We were looking for the
latest efficiency tools, all the things that Komori
has done to increase productivity, decrease
downtime, and reduce our makeready times.
So we encouraged them to come up with an
RP solution that would go with the advanced
design of their current press line, and this press
is it. It is the fastest press in terms of speed we
have on the floor, and it delivers the Komori
quality we love. From our perspective, Komori
has just made a great press even better.”
Flipping without marking the sheet
The LSX-840RP [8/2] is unique in that it prints
on both sides of the sheet without flipping the
stock. The ink on the bottom of the substrate
is UV cured before the top units print. In not
flipping the sheet, Rohrer can avoid marking
the stock. In fact, the press can print both sides
of heavy board, thus eliminating the need for
a gripper margin on the tail, providing stock
savings. Perfecting presses from most other
‘Komori: They don’t make promises they
can’t keep’
“The relationship between Rohrer and
Komori has been very solid,” he notes. “What
I like about Komori is it’s a very conservative
company. They don’t make promises they can’t
keep, and that’s a good way to do business.
Making sure they can deliver what they say, and
many times deliver more than what they say,
is something that Komori believes in. So even
though it is a press that is new to the market,
when they tell us, ‘Yes, the press will do this.
Yes, it’ll run this. Yes, it will accomplish these
goals that you have,’ we have every confidence
that it will.”
The LSX-840RP [8/2] was installed at Rohrer’s
plant in Buford, Georgia, in the fourth quarter
of 2010. Because it’s the first installation of this
model anywhere, it was as new to Komori
personnel as it was to Rohrer, and the two
companies shared the experience of bringing
the press to full functionality.
“Komori had quite a good team in on the
installation,” Adkins explains. “Our plant
managers and project coordinator worked
very closely with Komori and their engineering
team to make sure that everything was right.
We were up and running in less than six weeks,
so it was an extremely quick and thorough
installation. I was very impressed with that.”
Although the press has been in operation for
only three months, Adkins is pleased with the
results so far. “Even though we’re still learning,”
he says, “the production numbers are very
impressive in terms of our total throughput,
that is, the number of printed sheets per shift.
We’re seeing tremendous improvements
already.”
From left: Rob van Gilse, Vice President Sales and
Marketing, with Scot Adkins, President and CEO of
Rohrer Corporation
Additionally, because Rohrer is in the
packaging business, the company has a special
interest in environmental sustainability. Rohrer
uses only water-based inks, offers FSC and
SFI-certified materials, and recycles 15 million
pounds of materials every year.
“With all of the automation this press affords,
there’s obviously a resource savings in running
less sheets to get to color, but this new printing
press has the additional feature of a fountain
solution recycling system,” Adkins notes.
“Essentially what it does is recycle and replenish
the fountain solution. Basically, we don’t throw
anything down the drain.”
Summing up, Adkins says, “I think the way
Komori supports us is the way we like to
support our customers. Rohrer makes it a
point to excel at customer service. And I think
Komori is like us in that way. They respond
to us very well. And buying a press with that
kind of confidence in the manufacturer helps
us be the best company in terms of service in
our industry. Relying on partners like Komori
makes it possible for us to meet that goal.”
8-over-2 Color Reverse Printing Plus Coater Specification LSX-840RP [8/2] + C + Extended Delivery
36 Komori On Press Komori On Press
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