UK-based retail packaging company Glossop Cartons has purchased a four-colour Mitsubishi D3000LX B1-format litho press for installation at its premises in Glossop, Derbyshire.
The company’s second Mitsubishi printing press, the new machine incorporates inter-deck UV drying, end of press coating and IR and warm-air drying solutions.
The purchase allows Glossop Cartons to produce ‘film-ready’ skin pack cards in one pass – something that had previously required two machine processes – enhancing the company’s leading position among UK producers of skin packaging, which is typically used in the DIY and car accessory market sectors.
“We had been seeking the right press to accomplish a complex printing task for our business for some time,” says managing director Jacky Sidebottom.
“Previously we had added coating to the cards as an offline process. This ageing offline unit needed upgrading, but we were finding it difficult to purchase a suitable replacement.
“Incorporating the coating routine into the printing pass was the ideal solution, but too many coating ‘experts’ were saying it couldn’t be done.”
The company was advised on the Mitsubishi purchase by M Partners, which has managed both sales and service for Mitsubishi Litho Presses in the UK and Ireland since 2010.
“We worked closely with the coating supplier and experimented with a variety of transfer mechanisms in the coating unit itself,” says M Partners litho specialist and head of sales, Gary Doman. “The right components helped us to solve the puzzle!”
Jacky Sidebottom adds: “This latest addition to our production capabilities illustrates our approach to packaging very well. We make it our business to be aware of the requirements of packaging in our customers’ own marketplace.”
