The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, Govt of India has approved the packaging of 100 percent of the production of foodgrains and 100 percent of the production of sugar in the jute packaging material for the Jute Year 2011-12 (July, 2011 to June, 2012), with some exemptions. However, in case of any shortage or disruption in supply of jute packaging material or in other contingency/exigency, the Ministry of Textiles will, in consultation with the user Ministries concerned, relax these provisions further, upto a maximum of 20 percent of the production of foodgrains and sugar.

-to install a seven-colour ROLAND 900 in format 6 with coater

The US-based rapidly growing packaging printer looking to go to the next level, Accord Carton will become the second packaging printer in the world to install a seven-colour ROLAND 900 in format 6 with coater. The installation is scheduled for completion in late February 2012.

The installation of the new ROLAND 900 will be coupled with a plant expansion to accommodate the press as well as provide ample space for staging materials to efficiently keep pace with the new printing system. Accord Carton’s new press is prepared for UV printing and includes a TelePresence remote diagnostics module, okBalance, and ColorPilot. This new generation of the ROLAND 900 series also incorporates many engineering changes to further improve the performance and reliability of this large format press. It can operate at up to 15,000 sheets per hour.

“In the last five years we’ve gone from seven million dollar to nearly 40 million dollar in sales. There are still plenty of opportunities out there for us and we need this new machine to take us to the next level,” commented Robert Codo, president of Accord Carton, adding, “Today we are positioned very well in the markets that we serve. That was not the case nine years ago when we lost a very large customer to China. At that time we made a decision for the food, consumer care and products markets where we could defend ourselves from offshore competition. Over the years we found that the decision to slot ourselves into those markets has had a good effect on our ability to write new business.”

One of the worldwide market leaders with software for artwork creation, pre-production, automation, quality assurance and collaboration targeted at brand owners, retailers, designers and packaging manufacturers, EskoArtwork is joining the PrintCity Alliance Value Added Packaging (VAPack) knowledge sharing project. The VAPack initiative highlights the opportunities and benefits of ‘value added’ packaging techniques and materials. Focused on creative packaging professionals, it broadens understanding about such differentiation methods.

EskoArtwork will contribute its Studio product family knowhow, to show how the Value Added Packaging techniques and materials from the VAPack project can be modelled and assessed in 3D before prototyping or manufacture. Such technology can significantly reduce ‘time to market’ for new product launches. The EskoArtwork Studio capability includes Studio Designer, Studio Toolkit for Boxes, Studio Visualizer and Esko Store Visualizer.

For 18 months PrintCity members and partners manroland, UPM, Sun Chemical, M-real, Eltosch, Kurz, Merck, Weilburger Graphics and Bobst, plus a series of other technology partners, have shared knowledge on value added packaging techniques, and prepared a portfolio of ‘sample boxes’ to show what is possible. EskoArtwork is the 18th member of this project, which will be a major showcase for such techniques at drupa in May 2012 and beyond. “We at EskoArtwork recognize and endorse the efforts of the PrintCity Alliance to bring together the expertise of various stakeholders in the packaging industry and put the spotlight on how to create added value opportunities with packaging. With our engagement as a VAPack partner, we will share our extensive expertise in packaging design and prepress workflow, for the benefit of packaging converters worldwide. We are very happy to be a VAPack partner and we look forward to contribute to a showcase of value added packaging,” commented Jan De Roeck, director solutions management for EskoArtwork.

manroland and Univacco cooperate for joint development and sales activities in the field of cold foil

Enhancing print products with cold foil is very popular now. For many years, manroland has worked continuously on optimizing the technology and expanding the range of applications. Cold foil enhancement with the ROLAND InlineFoiler Prindor belongs among the most spectacular inline enhancement processes on the market today. Now, manroland and foil manufacturer Univacco Foils Holland BV have developed a new type of foil that together with selected system components from manroland’s printcom product portfolio provides outstanding results. Especially with cold foiling, the combination of high-quality materials and products is a prerequisite for premium enhancement. Even the slightest variation in the quality of individual components can have detrimental effects on the print result.

In order to achieve higher and more consistent quality, and to expand the range of applications, manroland has put together packages of perfectly coordinated printcom system components for different applications: cold foil, printing blankets, adhesive ink, fountain solution, washing agents, conventional ink, and coating. The manroland Print Technology Center in Offenbach played a major role in developing the brand new foil from printcom and Univacco that achieves amazing results and is already being used in the field to selected customers under real production conditions.

Univacco Foils Holland BV in Huissen is the European headquarters of the listed company Univacco Technology Inc in Taiwan. Established in 1990, Univacco is now one of the global market leaders in the development and production of hot stamping and cold stamping foils, as well as foils for special effects. The cooperation agreement between manroland and Univacco initially covers joint development and sales activities in the field of cold foil. Expansion of the cooperation in the future to include other areas such as hot stamping foils cannot be ruled out.