Consumables: Delivering true value-added service

An excerpt from AP July 2020 – by Böttcher Australia managing director Mitchell Mulligan

Packaging and label printing are by far the segments where demand for specialised consumables are required. At Böttcher Australia, we offer a range of consumables including: replacement printing rollers for lithographic printing processes (on exchange or recovering service), refurbishment of laminating and all processing rollers found in the press room including finishing lines, printing blankets and coating plates, and a full spectrum of pressroom chemicals like roller and blanket washes, fountain solution additives, and roller and blanket maintenance pastes and special cleaners, amongst others.

Our tailored solutions focus on improving productivity and quality, while reducing the raw material inputs. One such development is our ProPrint concept. ProPrint – Productivity in Print – puts the customer’s production process firmly in the centre of the stage and is designed to contribute to improving productivity, and with that profitability, for our customers.

One of the cornerstones of ProPrint are the ECS compounds. ECS stands for Easy Cleaning System and is our response to the fact that run lengths are becoming shorter and shorter, particularly in packaging applications.

The desire for up-to-date, topical packaging which stands out on the shelf on the one hand, and economic constraints and the desire to reduce inventories on the other, mean that packaging producers are having to cope with more frequent job changes.

This inevitably has a negative impact on the up-time or productive time of the printing press – more and more time is being lost for changing plates and in many cases ink colour, and less and less time is available for printing. Particularly in applications which demand a lot of spot colours (Pantone or HKS tones), this can quickly become a business-critical issue.

This is where our ECS compounds come in. They contain special polymers and additives which enhance their washability, and also have an especially smooth surface finish which reinforces the effect. ECS compounds are available for conventional and UV printing, as well as for customers running both conventional and UV inks on the same press.

As a developed western country, the demands for our product in Australia match that of Europe and the US. Australia is a forerunner in the consumables space and the industry should use it to its advantage to lead the charge.

The sole pursuit of Bottcher is to constantly improve the performance of products and develop solutions for every application. As such, we find that the demand for our high-quality products and solutions continues to grow in each market segment that we are active in. This is only possible through listening to our customers’ needs and developing solutions for some 80,000 customers worldwide.

Businesses in consumables should retain the good things from tradition and create the new from our own strengths. To consistently attain the highest level of quality and performance, you need to hold the reins firmly in your hands. From the first step of research and development through to production to the finished solution, including a smooth after sales service ensures that you are responsible at every step.

Don’t be afraid to investigate new materials and create new compositions. Only when quality requirements are fulfilled should a product go into production so that today and in future, you have the security of knowing that you are working with the best solutions available.

For example, at Böttcher Australia, our account managers work directly with customers and their printers with the aim of helping them “fine tune ” the different components. They are master printers or printing engineers and have learned the trade from the bottom up. For specialised chemical or technical analyses, they will consult our application technicians. These specialists leave a pressroom only if and when a solution has been found. In the end, our focus is on delivering true value-added service.

The digital version of the magazine is available here.

 

 

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