LFP - Large-Format-Printing
The First Fully-Automatic Screen-Printing Multicolour Line for Brazil
Thursday 31. July 2008 - THIEME delivers large format multicolour line with continuous gripper system to a print shop in Rio de Janeiro.
The THIEME 5000XL large format screen-printing line is in demand worldwide: Now, for the first time, one of these highly modern installations has been delivered to a Brazilian print shop, which is now the owner of the first fully-automatic screen printing multicolour line in all of Brazil. The company expects the use of the new machine to bring a significant increase in productivity and print quality, thus providing a competitive edge.
“A melhor impressão” the best impression the printing company MPV7, which is located in the Brazilian metropole Rio de Janeiro, promises its customers. For this purpose, the large company, which specializes in backlight posters and other advertising material, is indeed well equipped due to their recent acquisition of a fully-automated screen-printing four colour THIEME 5070XL line, delivered by the German screen-printing specialist THIEME GmbH & Co. KG.
The large format line (maximum print format 1600 mm x 2600 mm) is not only the first fully automatic screen-printing line with rotary gripper system for MPV7, but rather for all of Brazil. It consists of four printing stations, three UV intermediate dryers, a free-standing end-dryer and a stacker. The printing process from the sheet feeder to the stacker is completely automated and is programmed and monitored from a central operating panel.
The multicolour screen printing process at MPV7 previously required more manual intervention. The older printing machines, which have now been replaced by THIEME 5070XL, were semi-automatic machines connected to a multicolour configuration by means of transport belts and human material handling. A total of 20 print production colleagues worked on this installation. Since the wages in Brazil have in recent times greatly increased, this personnel-intensive production method had become too costly.
For the operation of the THIEME 5070XL, only two trained printers are required, which affords MPV7 substantial savings in personnel costs. At the same time, the new printing line offers a four-fold increase in productivity and a clear improvement in print quality. “We first took our customer to a print shop in Portugal, which also prints with a THIEME 5000 XL, so that he could become personally convinced of the effectiveness of the installation”, reports Jurgen Weischedel, marketing director of graphics at Thieme. “He was greatly impressed and shortly afterwards ordered his own machine.”
3000 square meters of four colour printing per hour
The machine concept of THIEME 5000XL enables extraordinary production performance with reduced operator requirements. The machine series which was brought to market in 2005 represented a further development of the successful THIEME 5000. In addition to the option of printing very large formats (up to 2060 mm x 3360 mm), the THIEME 5000XL also offers numerous productivity-increasing innovations, which enable a capacity of up to 3000 square meters printing surface per hour in four colours.
Moreover, the highly developed technology assures that hardly any downtime exists 95% of the operational readiness is achieved. Even the set-up times, which typically require less than five minutes per printing station, are minimal.
Fully-Automatic Rotary Gripper System,
Innovative Squeegee mechanism The fully-automatic rotary gripper system of THIEME 5070XL, which transports the substrate without manual intervention through the entire printing process from sheet feeding to stacking, has replaced the transport belts and manually operated semi-automatic printing stations which were previously the norm at MPV7.
The system can print sheets with a thickness of up to 10 mm. The exact positioning of the large format substrate on the printing tables is assured by means of a dynamic gripper centring, which enables both the gripper and the substrate to be successively transported to the printing table in the correct position.
The squeegee mechanism is also an innovative construction. Its driven by servomotor drive, and the patented system enables fast squeegee accelerations resulting in high velocity. All the settings, from squeegee pressure to squeegee angle, can be programmed on the control panel with touch-screen operation. As with screen changeout (depending on the format), changing of the squeegee and flood bar can be easily and quickly completed by a single operator.
A few steps ahead of the competition
The commissioning of the new printing installation was a quantum leap for the printing company in Rio de Janeiro as reported by Hans P Lueters, Thieme representative in Brazil. “In addition to productivity improvements, the customer also wanted to establish his reputation as a pioneer in Brazil. MPV7 already owns one of the largest digital printing machines in the country and now wants to take the lead in screen-printing.” Although his courage was skeptically judged by some of the local competitors, he remained confident that the investment will pay off and his company will again stay a few steps ahead of the competition thanks to the high productivity, the low printing costs and the improved printing quality of the THIEME 5070XL.