In response to the ever-increasing demand for flexible packaging, Koenig & Bauer says it is gaining a leadership position as it positively responds to its growing customer base. “With Koenig & Bauer’s rich 200-plus-year history of technical innovation, we have demonstrated the experience and ability to grow a customers’ business. We offer more proactive innovative solutions and support, ensuring our customers receive the maximum uptime and throughput in their facility and allow them to remain ahead of their competitors,” says Preston Neetzel, director of sales at Koenig & Bauer.
Neetzel adds, “We offer precisely what more and more customers are demanding – high quality, a broad product portfolio, and environment-friendly technologies. We’ve been recognized with awards honoring our innovative and impactful technology for the ever-evolving package printing and converting industry.”
Augmented Reality–DataGlass
Many flexible packaging printers are finding that orders are smaller with shorter lead times in today’s competitive market. Being able to remain fully operational to produce these orders is a necessity. Real-time service support is one of the premium methods offered by K&B. It has developed its own remote maintenance and modern communication channels known as Augmented Reality-DataGlass Remote Support.
At a 2019 Flexographic Technical Association’s (FTA) InfoFlex meeting, Koenig & Bauer received the FTA’s Technical Innovation Award for its Augmented Reality-DataGlass Remote Support. This system provides K&B remote maintenance specialists with the ability to experience, in real-time, what a customer’s technical team can see and hear.
By providing this one-to-one conversation between Koenig & Bauer’s technical team and the customer, Koenig & Bauer is better able to help them immediately diagnose the problem and get their flexo production system up and running. No longer is there a need to wait a crucial few days for a technician to visit and diagnose the problem.
“A remote support specialist can see and follow the actions of a press technician on-site live and in real-time while he or she works on the press, and see exactly what the technician is seeing,” explains Neetzel. “It’s been extremely popular with our flexo customers.”
“Koenig & Bauer and its AR-DataGlass technology has enabled us to increase our uptime and supports our goal of providing consistent, high-quality printing that our customers have come to rely on,” says Beth Smith, director of marketing at Great American Packaging, a Los Angeles-based supplier of flexible packaging. “We continue to grow our applications and further enhance our press’ total capabilities.”
Evo XG at production speeds of 600 meters a minute
Flexo printers seeking the highest quality and productivity are turning to the K&B Evo XG automated flexo press for processing film, paper, and cardboard at production speeds of up to 600 meters a minute.
In all versions of the Evo XG, solvent, as well as water-based inks, can be used and UV and EN cured inks. The Evo XG configuration with additional individual printing units using flexo or gravure printing technology is a further option for extending the performance range of the press. True-to-register printing, varnishing, coating, or laminating in recto and or verso printing are thus possible.
“The Evo XG is precisely the kind of machine we were looking for. We are convinced that we have made the right decision and that we will now be able to further strengthen our position as European market leaders,” said Jürgen Popp, owner and managing director of Zöllner-Wiethoff.
“The print quality of the Evo XG is outstanding and gives us new capabilities that enhance our customer portfolio and product positioning,” says Louis Figueria, director of printing at Yellowstone Plastics, a supplier of flexible packaging located in Idaho Falls, Idaho in the United States. “The press shows the true capabilities of high-quality flexo printing.”
PrintTronic
The technical team at Koenig & Bauer is always seeking to offer new press capabilities and features for its customers and, more specifically, to enhance the press operators’ experience. One of its most popular features is the PrintTronic system. With simplified controls and navigation and robust help functions, PrintTronic provides flexo operators with a more efficient process to keep operations running quickly and smoothly.
PrintTronic’s automatic impression settings ensure automatic control of print impression positions with minimized material waste and increased production uptime. Integrated into the HMI, PrintTronic delivers practical benefits such as quicker printing impression adjustment on all printing decks at once. There is no requirement for video cameras or additional external equipment, no need for dedicated marks or RFID embedded sleeves, no ink consumption during the process, and compatibility with any type of material, plates, or inks.
