Jamestrong Packaging has purchased a metal printing press which it claims is the “world's fastest”.
The KBA MetalStar 3 will be used in Jamestrong's Milperra NSW plant as part of a $13 million installation.
Managing director John Bigley said the investment proves how serious the company’s new owners are about growing its business in the APAC region.
“This investment will make us the most advanced metal decoration printing company in the southern hemisphere, building on the printing expertise already established at our Milperra metal preparation centre,” he said.
“This machine will be at the core of our manufacturing capabilities for our nutrition and aerosol businesses.
“This will help secure the long-term viability and growth of our metal packaging business in an increasingly competitive market.”
The KBA MetalStar 3 press will replace two existing Crabtree printing presses at the Milperra plant, pairing with a state-of-the-art Agfa CTP installed in October.
Bigley explained that the technology associated with the presses to be replaced meant that each colour was registered individually and colour management depended on human intervention.
“The new KBA MetalStar 3 removes some of the ‘black art’ of printing so there’s less chance of human error,” he said.
“Also, control of dot gain can be problematic with the current printers and machine speed is limited to
3250 sheets per hour (sph).”
The new press is an eight-deck printer that – with a speed of up to 8500 sph – will halve existing production times. It has a single registration from start to finish and industry-best colour and sharpness control, which results in improved quality for customers.
“The MetalStar 3 has state-of-the-art plate positioning. Out-of registration issues are eliminated by the way the sheet is held through the printing process (other systems have to re-register between each print deck).
Without registration issues, finer text is possible and photographic-quality images are much more achievable.”
Bigley said Jamestrong settled on the KBA MetalStar 3 press after lengthy investigation of a wide range of alternatives.
“We considered four- and six-colour machines to replace our existing presses but the extra capabilities of the new eight-deck machine were too attractive to pass over,” he said.
