Offset Printing

Further expansion of market position in laminating and offline varnishing machines

Monday 09. May 2011 - Steinemann Technology at Print China 2011

‘Swiss Engineering’ quality increasingly asserting itself in laminating and off-line varnishing systems in the Asia-Pacific region / Customers value Steine-mann as a strong and dependable partner / Pre-show business already ex-ceeded expectations
With its presentation at PRINT CHINA 2011 (Guangdong, 9 – 13 April), Steinemann Technology AG, St. Gallen/Switzerland, once again under-lined its reputation as a strong and dependable partner when it comes to high-end print finishing for the packaging and publishing sector on the demanding markets of the Asia-Pacific region. Business before the show already exceeded expectations, and the company was able to arouse the enthusiasm of many more visitors for its laminating and offline varnish-ing machines at the event itself. Both the machine demonstrations and the exhibition stand as a whole recorded very good attendance on all five days. The LOTUS SF laminating machine for solvent-free polyure-thane adhesive used for the live presentations was shipped to a cus-tomer in India immediately after the end of the event, while the COLIBRI machine for full-flood UV varnishing also used for live demonstrations was sold to a customer from Indonesia.
With its LOTUS SF, Steinemann was the only exhibitor in Guangdong to show a high-speed laminating machine using polyurethane adhesive technology – and it was also the fastest laminating machine at the whole event. Steinemann put more than 10 LOTUS SF machines into service in China alone last year. The success of this technology in the Asia-Pacific region, and on other mar-kets around the globe, is based on its unique cost-efficiency in combination with very high production speeds of up to 100 m/min and outstanding laminat-ing quality. The LOTUS SF is characterised by a particularly low level of adhe-sive application and low power consumption. In addition to which, the machine is highly flexible: laminating with solvent-free polyurethane adhesive is suitable for any kind of film or substrate.
For its part, the COLIBRI offline varnishing machine benefits from the exper-tise developed by Steinemann since inventing UV varnishing for the print and media industry in 1974. As a result, the convincing features offered by the COLIBRI include simple operation and extremely low varnish consumption in combination with perfect varnishing results. Moreover, it is the only offline UV varnishing system without a gripper for substrates under 100 g/m². This ma-chine, too, has enabled Steinemann to achieve a strong position on the chal-lenging markets of the Asia-Pacific region. For instance, more than 40 COLIBRI installations are today in operation in Indonesia.
“We discussed numerous concrete projects on our exhibition stand at PRINT CHINA – not only with customers from the whole of China, but also with well-known packaging and publishing customers from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam and other countries. The focus of all these talks was on the quality of the systems and the production results. Regardless of the countless low-cost suppliers, there is an unmistakable trend towards high-end quality, even on the markets in this region – making that a key element of our success, alongside the profitability and dependability of our technology,” said Alexander McNab – Steinemann Technology’s Area Sales Manager for the Southeast Asia region, based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – summing up the exhibition.
From the point of view of Albert Fässler, the company’s Area Sales Manager in Switzerland, the exhibition moreover once again underlined the importance of Steinemann’s strong, local presence in Asia: “We demonstrate the neces-sary proximity to the customer by having a service and sales office in Kuala Lumpur and our own factory, Steinemann (Shanghai) Machinery Co., Ltd., in China. The factory was opened in 2006, is certified to ISO 9001, and it is there that we very successfully produce the LOTUS SF laminating machine and the COLIBRI varnishing machine for shipping to customers all over the world. For many customers in the region, this local commitment is another important ar-gument in favour of a partnership with our company – making it a decisive basis for our continuing growth on the markets there.”