SELL

ACUCOTE’S Martin Automatic ECPF splicer is on
course for an 18-month payback on investment
claims its lines run best non-stop, because this removes the need for
manual splicing that can be unreliable, and always wastes time and
substrate.
Paul Sanborn, VP of manufacturing at Acucote, said: ‘We tried to
develop our own solution for an unwinder, but it didn’t give us the
desired results and ended up being very problematical.’ Acucote
approached Martin Automatic for a non-stop splicer, initially without
giving the manufacturer a full brief.
‘The first splicer and infeed we bought, 14 years ago, was a fine
piece of equipment, but didn’t perform quite as we expected because
we hadn’t been completely honest with the brief.’ Acucote learned its
lesson, according to Sanborn, and now gives a full brief to the Martin
team. ‘The questions they ask are the reasons their equipment is so
well-engineered,’ he added.
Working with Martin engineers and technical sales, Acucote
equipped its adhesive coating lines with Martin splicers for both the
wet and dry unwinds, and with Martin automatic transfer rewinders.
LABELS&LABELING |23
As part of its mission to provide technically complex,
high value self-adhesive products, the company runs a
wide variety of substrates, including paper, paperboard,
film and fabric. With many jobs averaging only about
5,000 feet, frequent material changes are necessary.
‘When we are adding adhesive to this range of
substrates, changing jobs from one to the next can be
challenging, but the Martin splicers and rewinders have
no problem accommodating the diversity of substrates
and handling roll changes without stopping,’ he stated.
K2 FLEXO PRESS
UNIPARCO (SENEGAL)
Press manufacturer K2 Flexo exhibited a 440mm wide
FastAction flexographic printing press, fully specified
for label and film production, at Labelexpo Europe.
The press featured full UV curing and IR drying at
each printing station and was demonstrated running a
6-color, 40 micron shrink film job for beverages.
‘We are pleased to announce that this fully
servo-driven press was sold to Uniparco, one of the
biggest, privately owned cosmetics companies in
Senegal,’ said managing director Russell Oddy. ‘The
company has significant manufacturing capabilities and
the press will be used for packaging its own products
in-house.’
Designed for high speed operation, the FastAction
press with chill drums and fully automatic register
controls permits a wide range of films to be processed
and is optimized to meet the requirements of the
cosmetics industry. A full specification included die
station with side adjustment, rotary crush cut slitters,
print cylinders driven by helical gears, inks pumps,
de-laminating and re-laminating with turn bar, video
web inspection and corona treater.
JANUARY 2012 | L&L