Colorpak, Hannapak and a commercial printer have each made "multimillion-dollar investments" in Manroland technology.
Manroland Australasia revealed that the two packaging firms and a Victorian printer would install Manroland 700 sheetfed presses in January.
Hannapak will install Australia’s first R706 LV HS with coater at its plant in Richmond, Sydney. The six-colour press can reach 18,000 sheets per hour and will include "the latest in automation", including InlineSorter, InlineInspector and an auto plate-loading system, according to Manroland.
Hannapak managing director Sam Hanna said the press was designed for companies that processed high volumes of cartonboard packaging.
"There are a couple of things that take this press to the next level. Apart from the Aupasys [material logistics system] that we tested on the previous machine, it has the latest in-line inspection system," said Hanna.
"We’re not just doing high volumes, we’re doing high volumes of very high-quality work."
Hanna said Hannapak also liked the InLine Inspector, which removes the need for check sheets by taking the actual PDF-stepped file from prepress and sending it straight to the press for system checks.
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"A lot of bad sheets will [otherwise] have gone through by the time the printer picks up a glitch. With the InLine Inspector, the warning is raised immediately there is a recurring print defect," he said.
Meanwhile, Colorpak’s R706 LTTLV double coater press will have a top speed of 17,000 sheets per hour and will include the Aupasys material logistics system, automatic plate loading and an InlineSorter.
Managing director Alex Commins said the press would replace two older machines at Colorpak’s supersite in Braeside, Melbourne.
"It fits nicely with the rationalisation strategy we’re undergoing at the moment. It’ll give us greater productivity," he said.
"Over many years Colorpak has been at the forefront of technology investment. There are not too many others that can boast the modern suite of equipment that we have.
"We have something like 27 presses in the group, and we’ve been consistently buying Roland 700s for six or seven years."
Manroland Australia managing director Steve Dunwell said: "The people at these top packaging printing companies know what they want in a sheetfed press. They are very experienced printers and I believe the decision to go with the latest Manroland 700 is a vindication of the high-productivity technology now available for the packaging market."
[Related: More install stories]
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