As the market moves faster towards digital print solutions, manufacturers of converting equipment can only keep pace by providing ultimate flexibility and solutions which enhance productivity. With processing speeds of up to 80 metres/minute and a set-up time of over 8 minutes, Digifast One is the digital finishing solution to boost productivity and reduce downtime between jobs, according to Italian manufacturer of label finishing solutions Prati.
Chiara Prati, sales and marketing manager, Prati, said: “Digital printing takes us into a new realm of finishing which demands high quality and accuracy. Mass production is being replaced by short customised finishing requirements; so frequent job changeovers can slow down production due to all the time lost between jobs. These considerations made us investigate opportunities to ensure top quality finishing and enhance productivity in order to make digital production profitable and enable converters to respond positively to the evolving market scenario. Digifast One boosts productivity on average by up to 40% with 8-minute job setup times and significant reductions in waste material for each job. Considering digital runs tend to be shorter and shorter, minimal job changeover times are crucial.”
“Standard changeover times are at least 20 minutes, so the savings accumulated in one shift by Digifast One amount to approximately 3 hours downtime. When equipped with FastCut automated knife and counter-knife positioning device, setup times drop drastically and slit quality achieves tighter tolerance levels. Side‐trimming is handled by the automatic backscoring unit underneath.
The semi-rotary Flexo unit combined with the Cold Foil unit enable converters to provide standard sheet lamination, custom lamination to pre‐determined label areas, supervarnish and UV laminate. And as not all labels processed in one run have the same shape, the twin shaft of the semi‐automatic turret can handle 2 rolls simultaneously saving further time. In another situation this device allows operators to set up the pre-glued cores on one shaft, ready for the next roll, while the other shaft is winding,” explained Gabriele Rubertucci, senior engineer, Prati.
