The wifag//polytype Magazine10/2014

The new WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Constantia Patz relies on laminating and coating from Polytype Converting

Water-based inkjet printing in the Technology Center

New Competence Center for Inks & Materials

User meeting with a future view

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FOCUS WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG 4Hamburg site expansion 8

MARKET The //wifag evolution 371 has gone into operation in Minden 12Constantia Patz relies on Polytype Converting 16

TECHNICAL Water-based inkjet printing in the Technology Center 22New Competence Center for Inks & Materials 25OEM partnership with Steinemann Technology 29

EVENTS Open house event launches WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG 32User meeting with a future view 35

NEWS Integrated into the production line’s 38Rotary printing press in Shreveport to be modernized 39

IMPRINT 38

editorial content

Dear Readers,

We have merged our Printing Pres-ses, Coating & Laminating and Di-gital Printing divisions under the umbrella of WIFAG-Polytype Tech-nologies AG because the know-how in these fields intermeshes perfectly. Our existing successful brands and companies provide a solid basis for the growth of a new forward-looking company.

This has been a logical, evolutio-nary step for us. The fact that our customer magazine has carried this title for decades is even more fit-ting, and the latest edition of “evo-lution”, which you are holding in your hands, showcases the port-folio of WIFAG-Polytype Technolo-gies AG in all its multifaceted glory.

In it, you will find portraits of in-novative users such as Constan-tia Patz and J.C.C. Bruns that show how investing in our technology can significantly boost cost-effici-ency in production and help com-panies to open up new markets, too.

This edition also sets out all the im-portant details about WIFAG-Po-lytype Technologies AG, the ex-pansion at our Hamburg site, our

growing expertise and the oppor-tunities we offer for joint projects, whether your skills lie in printing, converting, or any of the other sectors that are relevant to us.

Also included is an insight into our Technology Center, where “Tech-ma-4”, our single-pass roll-to-roll press, is being used in pilot projects for printing on plastic films and alu-minum foils with water-based in-kjet inks. This exciting technology was a highlight at our open-house event in Fribourg at the beginning of June.

There is also a report on our new Inks & Materials segment, which can play a key role in supporting cost-effective inkjet printing on an industrial scale, and an article showcasing an OEM project that is using our digital technology to cus-tom coat large-format print sheets.

We hope you find our magazine an entertaining and inspiring read.

With best wishes,

Jörgen KarlssonCEO

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We have pooled our expertise for the benefit of your projects

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

focus

The roots of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG reach far back – all the way to 1904, when Winkler Fallert Co was established in Bern, Switzerland. The company grew into WIFAG Maschinenfabrik AG and, over the following decades, became one of the three key pil-lars of a strong corporate group alongside Polytype AG in Fribourg, Switzerland, and Amsterdam-based trading company Wifac BV.

In the early 1990s, the group start-ed to establish foreign subsidiar-ies and underwent a remarkable growth phase supported by stra-tegic acquisitions. During these years, wifag//polytype expanded its sphere of expertise consider-ably by acquiring, for example, the dryer technology of Pagendarm, the large-format digital printing technology of Spühl and expertise in the inline production of printed metal containers, an area where mall//herlan is currently the clear market leader. Many of these

Since June 1, 2014, WIFAG Maschinenfabrik AG has a new name – WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG. The Converting, Printing Presses and Digi-tal Printing divisions have been merged under this umbrella. This is the final step in creating a technology firm that pulls together our know-how in coating, laminating, mechanical engineering, automation, digi-tal printing, material handling and ink formulation. As a result, we are perfectly placed to implement your complex projects with our own, in-house resources.

milestones opened up new mar-kets for us, or gave us the oppor-tunity to expand the value-added chain for our machine solutions.

Strong synergy effects

Over the past few years, we have helped to shape change on the markets through additional stra-tegic acquisitions, while internal structural changes have smoothed the way for WIFAG-Polytype Tech-nologies AG. In parallel with our

takeover of Swedish company Solna Offset AB, the printing press division was successfully integrat-ed into our Fribourg site. Because both //wifag and //polytype are printing press manufacturers, we have benefited from strong syn-ergy effects, and close collabora-tion on procurement, manufactur-ing and production have created significant advantages.

We have concentrated our digital press business with the wide-for-mat machines of the Virtu series on the North American market and leveraged the huge poten-tial of our digital printing experts for the entire group by establish-ing the Digital Competence Cen-ter (DCC) in Fribourg, Switzerland. Numerous in-house developments for the digital printing process, such as CALMAR controls, have opened up new markets and fields of business for wifag//polytype that offer enormous potential.We have also pooled the out-standing automation know-how of

//wifag and former EAE employ-ees, who joined us only recently, and provided additional resources to support activities in this area.

Intensive research and development

Digital technology and automation will shape the future in coating and laminating technology, too. Polytype Converting AG (Fribourg) and Pagendarm BTT GmbH (Ham-burg) have been operating as a powerful combined force since 2007 and, in 2013, were merged at an organizational level and re-aligned to meet changing mar-ket requirements. By relocating production phases to Germany,

where our Hamburg site (former-ly Pagendarm BTT GmbH and now WIFAG-Polytype GmbH) is based, we have been able to achieve sig-nificant cost advantages that ben-efit our customers.

Demand for new presses has dropped significantly among newspaper printers around the world, but we are starting to see the first moves for integrating dig-ital printing in this sector. When this development gathers pace, we will be ready, and we will have a clear edge on other suppliers.

Coating and laminating machinery and digital newspaper printing are crucial pillars of wifag//polytype.

These areas will benefit huge-ly from our intensive research and development work, which over recent months has helped us achieve major advances in digital technology, automation and ma-terial and ink technology. By in-tegrating the entire development team of Ilford and acquiring pat-ents, we have locked in important know-how for the formulation of inks, primer solutions, functional coatings and nanotechnology.

More than “just” machine technology

In June 2014, we used this unique technological foundation to launch WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG.

Automation & Workflow

Feeding, Conveying, Web Handling

Extrusion FormingDryingCuring

Finishing

Printing

Coating & Laminating

Competence in 3D container manufacturing (Polytype AG)

Competence in flexible substrates manufacturing (Polytype Converting AG)

Competence used across all business units (wifag//polytype Group)

Competences of wifag//polytype Group

Organization of WIFAG-Polytype Holding AG

Mall + Herlan Schweiz AG

Mall + Herlan Italia S.r.l.

Mall + Herlan GmbH

Mall + Herlan MB GmbH

Polytype AG

Mechatronica AD

OMV Machinery Srl. Wifac Naca N.V.

Wifac Holding B.V.

Wifac Performance Supplies B.V.

Wifac GmbH

Wifac Graphia GmbH

Lüscher Technologies AG

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Polytype Converting AG

WIFAG-Polytype GmbH

WP Scandinavia AB

WIFAG-Polytype China Ltd.

Shenzhen WIFAG-Polytype Ltd.

Huaying Soft-Packaging Equipment Plant Ltd.

WIFAG-Polytype Holding AG

Polytype America Corp.

Polytype South & Central America Comercial Ltda.

Polytype Asia Pacific Co., Ltd.

Wifag-Polytype India Marketing Private Ltd.

WIFAG-Polytype Turkey and Middle East

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The renaming of WIFAG Ma-schinenfabrik AG sent a clear mes-sage: Although we are still viewed as a machine producer in the sec-tor – an area where we ultimate-ly have more than a century of ex-perience – we are confident that many customers want more from a supplier than “just” machine tech-nology. They need a product solu-tion. The reaction from the markets has endorsed our strategy.

wifag//polytype has been under-going a process of change since 2013. Everyone in our company is aware of this and understands that there is still some way to go. We are going to be changing a lot, and the new company is the epi-center of the biggest changes.

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies combines a huge portfolio of skills and expertise from a wide range of industries under one roof. From a sales perspective, that repre-sents a major challenge. Howev-er, WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG is very clearly focused on cus-tomer-related projects. Our USP is that we offer end-to-end con-cepts – from process engineering and essential software to machine technology, inks, coating and lami-nating.

In many cases, the basis for all this is our unrivalled expertise in digital technology and automa-tion. Indeed, we have invested some CHF 30 million in research and development for digital tech-

nology since 2008. Over the past year and a half, developments in this area have taken off at an un-believable pace. In that time, we have been manufacturing and supplying digital printing and coat-ing and laminating units for a vast array of production areas. It cer-tainly seems as if we have cho-sen our focal points very well. The advances we have made in digi-

focus

tal printing are based on a broad and varied portfolio of skills. That is why it was important for us to pool our expertise in web trans-port, drying, automation and digi-tal printing.

Consumables are key

Consumables are extremely im-portant in digital technology. From

2008, progress had been less than rapid in a number of areas because we had to wait on input from ma-terials manufacturers. However, the new skills and expertise we acquired at the start of this year with regard to inks and function-al coatings have solved a lot of problems. Materials represent an important cost factor, as well as a guarantee that the process also works. With our takeover of the Il-ford team, we became a genuine complete solution provider.

That is also why we were able to achieve a breakthrough this year in printing on non-absorbent ma-terials such as plastic films and aluminum foils with water-based inks. That has been a huge success based entirely on our in-house de-velopment activities – and one we are very proud of. Many of our customers took the chance to vis-it us in person and check out our

latest developments during our open-house event in June and in numerous private meetings at our Technology Center. Our digi-tal print offerings are proving to be especially interesting for food packaging applications.

Customers are already entrusting large-scale development projects to us on the basis of our advances in digital printing and the exper-tise we offer for every aspect of the printing process. One of these projects involves printing on alu-minum foil while another focuses on printing on paper substrates.

This project represents a partic-ularly tough challenge as it in-volves completely replacing con-ventional gravure printing with digital techniques. As a result, the quality requirements are particu-larly stringent. WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG supplies the sin-

gle-pass and multi-pass presses, workflow, color management and materials needed for this project. We believe there is a 95% chance that conventional printing, with its long makeready times, can be rendered completely obsolete in this market in the near future.

New fields of business and OEM partnerships

Besides our classic markets, which we will continue to serve with all our commitment and resources and a whole range of new ideas for conventional and digital tech-nology, we have also achieved our first successes in new fields of business. This has resulted in us being given engineering contracts for new applications.

We will also be making our digital and automation expertise avail-able to third parties. In June, Swiss company Steinemann present-ed its “dmax” large-format digital coating machine, which incorpo-rates a digital unit developed and supplied by WIFAG-Polytype Tech-nologies.

All these success stories show that wifag//polytype will be an even more reliable, cost-effective and innovative partner in the fu-ture.

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Consolidation of three Business Units Business and Functions of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Digital Printing Coating & LaminatingPrinting Presses

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Evolution of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

2007

2008

2011

2014

Founding Company Printing Presses/Automation

Founding Company Coating/Laminating

Company Acquisition Coating/Drying

Company Acquisition Digital Printing

Company Acquisition Printing Presses/Automation

Hiring of core sales team Automation

Hiring of core R&D team Inks & Layers

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Digital Printing Coating & LaminatingPrinting Presses

Automation Customer ServicesInks & Materials

Sales | Project Management | Mechanical Engineering | Purchasing

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Ömer Sengün and Esa-Matti Aalto

WIFAG-Polytype in Hamburg designs and delivers complete printing and converting systems

Head office of WIFAG-Polytype GmbH in Hamburg

focus

Automation and retrofit for con-verting and newspaper printing

Hamburg site expansion

wifag//polytype Group’s Hamburg base dates back to when the re-nowned coating and drying spe-cialist Pagendarm was founded in 1955. The company’s coating sys-tems for label and magnetic tape production made a name for Erich Pagendarm and his mechanical en-gineering firm that spread world-wide.

The restructuring of the wifag//polytype Group and the resulting creation of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG have heralded positive changes at the Hamburg site. Alongside a new name – on April 1, 2014, former Pagendarm BTT GmbH became WIFAG-Polytype GmbH – the Hamburg-based team was also assigned new responsibili-ties and authorities plus the requisite extra personnel. The compa-ny name says it all – alongside converting, WIFAG-Polytype GmbH is now also active in the printing press sector. Automation solutions form a clear focus. Hamburg’s special expertise in reliably complet-ing complex projects with many partners also fits in splendidly with the new corporate strategy.

Previously run under the name Pa-gendarm BTT, the business was ac-quired by Polytype Converting AG from Fribourg, Switzerland – first, as part of a majority holding in 2007, before it took over 100 per-cent. Pagendarm complemented the Polytype-Converting portfo-lio to a tee and brought with it ex-tra competence in additional mar-kets. Most attractive of all was its

expertise and outstanding position in the dryer sector. This meant the company was now able to con-struct end-to-end coating systems based on its own know-how.

One of the outstanding coat-ing technologies that Pagendarm brought to the wifag//polytype Group was the AGS 2500S, a pres-surized chamber doctor blade sys-tem, co-developed with BASF, that prevents foaming during the coat-ing procedure. The technology al-lows exact control of the applied quantity, whatever the speed.

In 2012, Pagendarm BTT caught the attention of the entire indus-try with its new dryer generation Speedstar® HT for high tempera-tures up to 400 degrees Celsius. These units set new standards in terms of energy efficiency and us-er-friendly operation. Industry jour-

nal C2 recognized the Polytype subsidiary’s invention with the “C2 European Innovation Award” and the “C2 American Innovation Award” the following year.

Integrated into the new corporate structure

In September 2013, the wifag//polytype Group began creating the basis for a broad portfolio that would reflect customers’ individ-ual needs even more closely with a new future- and market-orient-ed corporate structure. The presti-gious brands “Polytype” and “Pag-endarm” have stood ever since for Swiss quality in both the top-level and advanced-level segments.

Jörgen Karlsson assumed responsi-bility for Printing Presses (//wifag) and took over the helm at Poly-

type Converting AG, ably support-ed by Ernst Meier, Head of Sales at Polytype Converting AG, and Ham-burg’s Managing Director, Esa-Mat-ti Aalto.

Not only has wifag//polytype amalgamated the entire spec-trum of know-how on process-ing materials – i.e. coating, lami-

nating, drying and printing – since then, but the appropriate synergies were realized in the wifag//poly-type Group with Pagendarm’s input of specialist know-how from 2007 onward and once print machine specialist Wifag came on board in 2011. With additional support from the unique, cross-group “Digital Competence Center” and the “Au-

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Björn Büttner, Kyrill Hammer, Georg Johnke, Jochen Savinsky and Ömer Sengün

The Speedstar® HT won the C2 Innovation Awards in Europa and America in 2013

tomation Competence Center”, WI-FAG-Polytype Technologies is able to provide what must be the sec-tor’s broadest portfolio in the world when it comes to coating and lam-inating through the Polytype and Pagendarm brands.

Focus on the newspaper market

The next steps at the Hamburg site followed a logical progression. The German market has always been extremely important for WIFAG Maschinenfabrik GmbH, the pre-decessor to the current Printing Presses division of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG – in terms of both the installation of WIFAG’s newspa-per printing presses and ongoing technological adaptations, such as retrofit contracts.

So, in response to the latest market developments, wifag//polytype set about reinforcing its presence in Germany and in the automa-tion/retrofit sector in spring 2014. Ömer Sengün (54), previously a supervisor at a control and auto-mation specialist in the printing in-dustry for many years, started to build up an additional competence center for automation and retrofits in Hamburg. This involved bringing in a series of additional employ-ees, some with considerable ex-perience in automation projects. In total, almost a dozen extra project specialists joined the Hamburg site.

One kilometer of dryers

Full-scale production lines pose no problem for the Hamburg-based dryer specialists at WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG. Between 2002 and 2012 alone, “Pagendarm” dryers spanning a total length of around 1,000 meters were installed worldwide. The longest systems are a 78-meter-long flo-tation dryer in Japan that went into operation in 2009 and 60-meter-long dryer systems in Spain and Germany.

focusIn close cooperation with the wi-fag//polytype Group’s Automa-tion Competence Center in Fribourg (Switzerland) under the leadership of Rolf Mani, the new team opens up every possible option at wifag//polytype for the newspaper print-ing sector in Germany in particular, thus providing a genuine alterna-

tive to any of the existing system suppliers.

It is already quite evident that the requirements in printing presses and coating machines – particular-ly those involving automation and control issues – demonstrate signif-icant overlap.

As the group of companies can now offer an end-to-end portfolio – far more than any other system supplier in printing, coating and converting – the Hamburg team can now also draw on intensive re-search and development resources in the fields of workflow, software solutions, inks, materials and digital printing as well as //wifag’s proven robust and innovative system engi-neering and automation.

This means the new competence center in Hamburg can provide support and assume complete re-sponsibility for far more extensive projects than any singular automa-tion-retrofit specialist. The wifag//polytype Group has the necessary know-how in both conventional and digital printing technology to realize projects that reach well into the technological future.

The new name spells it out

The name Pagendarm BTT GmbH, albeit with its resounding repu-tation in the converting market, would not have adequately reflect-ed the extra areas Hamburg now covers – hence the adoption of the new trading name WIFAG-Polytype GmbH on March 1, 2014. The “Pag-endarm” brand remains in use for dryers and coating units, however.

Strengthened in terms of structure and personnel, the Hamburg oper-ation is more than just a linchpin of the wifag//polytype matrix orga-nization. The focus at Pagendarm BTT already lay firmly on develop-ment, project planning and con-struction, i.e. on the optimum tun-ing of systems to meet customer requirements, and on perfect after-sales service. Numerous special-

ists were brought together to work on the various systems, in different constellations to suit requirements. Now WIFAG-Polytype GmbH can draw on this varied experience, and it is more than fitting that the Hamburg team has also taken on central sourcing for the entire WI-FAG-Polytype Technologies AG.

As part of the restructuring, the conception of end-to-end produc-tion lines has been added to the focal areas of drying and remoist-ening, as well as sales, spare parts and services. Automation solutions are advancing ever further to the fore in all areas. In addition, inspec-tion solutions have been devel-oped at WIFAG-Polytype GmbH in Hamburg that will also be used by the wifag//polytype Group in areas such as machines for hollow body production and decoration. n

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Carsten Lohmann, publishing director Andreas Stahlhut, technical director Bruns Druckwelt in Minden

Up and running since April 2014 - the //wifag evolution 371

View inside one of the three printing towers

„We have a lot to gain”The //wifag evolution 371 has gone into operation in Minden

As Carsten Lohmann himself ad-mits, he has “a real love of print-ing”. The publishing director of the Mindener Tageblatt is the sparring partner of technical director An-dreas Stahlhut, so to speak. In the past few months, they and their teams have brought about huge changes – all because the family-run corporate group decided to in-vest in a completely new newspa-per press.

In the night from March 31 to April 1, 2014, the Berliner format (315 x 470 mm) newspaper was printed for the first time using the //wifag evolution 371. This came two and a half years after the investment was announced at the Ifra Expo 2011 in Vienna.

When a creative publisher is in charge, cutting-edge newspaper tech-nology can open up a whole range of new production – and therefore also revenue – opportunities. The new //wifag evolution 371 has already caused quite a stir at Bruns Druckwelt in Minden, Westphalia, Germany. If you look behind the scenes, you will find a perfect example of a typical German regional newspaper publisher with a future-oriented strategy.

market

Huge step

For the J.C.C. Bruns corporate group, this is a huge “evolutionary” step in technology – from a MAN Roland Uniman, commissioned in 1994, that could only print 32 full-color pages in one pass, to a //wi-fag rotary press with the latest //wifag control stations and numer-ous inline control devices. Thanks to the folder superstructure with three formers, a freely positionable skip slitter and the ribbon stitch-ing option, the three double-width, double-circumference four-high towers, three //wifag M autopas-ters and a 2:5:5 jaw folder enable up to 48 pages in all kinds of book formats, including combinations of broadsheet and tabloid.

“We are confident that new cold-set products will enable us to strengthen our position,” said Sven Thomas, publisher and Managing Director of Bruns Druckwelt, in an interview with “evolution” last year. The Mindener Tageblatt and the “Weserspucker” advertising paper were previously the main period-

dia outlets and are constantly work-ing to develop new product versions.

A prime example is “Azubify”, an MT project “that brings together young people looking for an ap-prenticeship and companies offer-ing places”. It goes without saying that this is a cross-media project with an exemplary website (www.

It should be mentioned at this point that Bruns Druckwelt is among the companies that still have both cold-set newspaper printing and commercial sheetfed offset under one roof. This has undeniable ad-vantages, and not just for combi-nation printing (contents from the newsprint roll, cover from sheetfed offset). The expertise and control

towers and three autopasters are all on one level), had begun in No-vember 2013. The printing center at the edge of town was extend-ed to make space for the print-ing press and the connected mail room. Technical director Andreas Stahlhut and his team therefore had to work next to a construction site for months. However, this had

icals that were printed using the limited resources of the old 30,000 revolutions per hour press. Of course, there were also occasional special products, for young people, for example. The new technology – which also includes a new Ferag mail room – opens up a whole new world of potential products.

New products and target groups

Of course, the Mindener Tageb-latt has not remained untouched by the societal change that has led to decreased circulation in almost all printed subscription daily newspa-pers. However, the MT and its pub-lisher are not only firmly rooted in the region, they also utilize all me-

azubify.de). The response so far to the project, which was launched in spring 2014, is therefore all the more astonishing – there was a huge demand for the printed magazine, “Azubify – Das Maga-zin für Berufstarter”, which ran to 160 pages. Lohmann noted that, “The youngsters even fight over the printed edition, because some-times it is easier to flick through something.”

station experience of the commer-cial printers, who work with 5-color IIIb presses, some with inline coat-ing unit, made the change to the new newspaper press particularly easy for Bruns.

Gradual transition

Delivery and installation of the new press, with its single-level configuration (the three printing

the clear advantage that the tran-sition from one production line to the other could be done gradually – even if the transition phase only lasted a week.

“Apart from a few minor hiccups, installation and commissioning went very well,” reflects Stahl-hut, praising the work of the team from the Swiss press manufacturer. Production started on time. “Albeit on a construction site,” he laughs. But things are far from finished. This is primarily due to the many new features the press has. While it is “just ” a conventional “dou-ble-width/double-circumference” press, its three formers mean that it offers a huge range of production possibilities.

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View onto the superstructure ... the single-level autopaster ... and the turner bars

New capacity for new product ideas

The new //wifag control stations

The third former opens up a whole range of production opportunities

“Die Harke” is now printed in Minden

The three formers are key to the planned 6-book structure of the MT and “Harke” daily newspapers. It was not only the Minden-based headquarters that have been ea-gerly anticipating the new pro-duction possibilities, but also the publishers of the “Harke” daily newspaper further down the River Weser in Nienburg. It is a real win-win situation. Together, the two neighboring publishing houses pro-vide the lion’s share of the work-load for the new press, which can

dener Tageblatt, which in the past regularly had well over 100 pages of Berliner format in its weekend edition, and today still has an im-pressive 88 or 92 pages on a Sat-urday. These 92 pages are then spread across ten reader- and ad-vertising-friendly sections created from just one primary product.

The slitter or skip slitter – a timed slitter located on the former – even supports the inline production of tabloid products, for example five

market

sections of broadsheet with 12 or 16 pages of tabloid in the middle. Both Lohmann and editor-in-chief Christoph Pepper, who is currently working on a re-launch of the pa-per, are thrilled.

The rapidly changing face of print production

The technological leap – which covers two decades of techni-cal advances – has consequences on many levels in Minden. The 40

percent faster press, the far more automated setup process and the inline control technology for ribbon and ink register mean the printers face radical changes in their jobs. Despite the addition of a second newspaper, the newspapers take less time to produce than before. The shift pattern has therefore been changed from two to “1+”.

Of course, it is hoped that this will change. The new newspaper press is not only faster and more auto-mated, it also brings a whole new level of quality to rotary printing, particularly as Bruns has changed to a 137lpi hybrid screen (Agfa). “The print is much sharper,” says Lohmann. And Stahlhut immedi-ately remarks upon the “far quieter press run” when he is asked about the visible and audible advantages of the new investment.This leap ahead in quality is par-

achieve speeds of up to 85,000 copies an hour in double produc-tion. The new technology also pro-vides real cost-efficiency benefits for the “Harke”. At the weekends, the Nienburg paper always stretch-es to 48 pages. Its previous print-ing partner could not manage this in a single pass. Bruns Druckwelt can. And thanks to the three form-ers, this weekend edition can be printed in a very reader-friendly six-section format.This is even more true for the Min-

ticularly significant when it comes to acquiring orders for more peri-odicals and expanding the printing portfolio into commercial products and newspaper supplements. J.C.C. Bruns is very pleased that one or two supplements that were previ-ously delivered to them are now printed in-house.

More outside contracts

Since the Minden-based printer is the only one in the region offer-ing the latest printing technology in Berliner format, Bruns Druckwelt is optimistic that it will be able to sig-nificantly increase the amount of contract printing it does. Alongside the daily and weekly newspapers for the Minden and Nienburg pub-lishing houses, there are plans for the printing portfolio to reflect the great variety of newspaper prod-ucts.

While many contacts with potential customers were made at manage-ment level before the new press-es were commissioned, the fo-cus is now on strengthening sales. Along with Küster Pressedruck, the

production operation of the “Neue Westfälische” that the Mindener Tageblatt also cooperates with in terms of advertising, Bruns Druck-welt is taking on a sales repre-sentative, who is able to offer the market a wide range of cold-set production possibilities thanks to the various formats in Minden and Bielefeld.

But who knows what other syn-ergies the Bruns Druckwelt opera-tion could still generate? Over the past few years, the commercial unit of the Minden-based printer has gathered a wealth of expertise in high-finish printed matter, such as the use of scented coatings. The first step in cold-set will be to ex-pand the range of potential papers based on comprehensive test print runs.

In Minden, they are certainly proud of the new technology and opti-mistic about the future. “Now we can really put the pedal to the met-al. We can only benefit from this,” say Carsten Lohmann and publish-er Sven Thomas.

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The plant of Constantia Patz Ges. m. b. H. in Loipersbach Managing director Rainer Huber is very pleased with wifag//polytype

The //polytype 7 laminates and coats under cleanroom conditions

Optimum protection using wafer-thin foilsConstantia Patz relies on laminating and coating technology from Polytype Converting

A decade has passed since the Constantia Group reached a watershed decision, when the Loipersbach plant, which at that time supplied a wide range of packaging for the food, dairy and pharmaceuticals sectors, was chosen to become the new pharmaceutical headquarters of the Group. The first step was to construct the “Pharma-Cen-ter I” there, which was fitted with its first cleanroom for print production and reel slitting in 2005.

Specializing in aluminum foils and composites

Today, the 340-strong workforce at Constantia Patz pro-duces around 260 million square meters (17,000 metrics tons) of finished foil per year. The strategically planned specialization has come a long way, with 85 percent of the foils already destined for customers in the pharma-ceuticals sector and even the remaining 15 percent clas-sified as “pharmacy-specification”, such as blister foils for the food industry, as used for packaging chewing gum, for example, rather than pills.

Something in excess of 4 million liters of coating is re-quired per year, and it is all manufactured in the com-pany’s own coatings factory. Around 60 percent of the

Constantia Patz is one of the most “transparent” packaging manufacturers around. Customers can be found inspecting the Loipersbach plant and production facilities in Lower Austria around once every two weeks on average. The constant stream of inspections comes with the territory. As one of the leading manufacturers of flexible packaging for the pharmaceuticals and healthcare sector, Constantia Patz Ges.m.b.H. manufactures blister pack components for pills and capsules from aluminum foils and plastic films. The major plus for the customers is that a large part of production takes place in cleanroom conditions. The laminating and coating is performed using Polytype presses from WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG.

aluminum foils, which can measure as little as 15 µm in thickness, come from sister company Constantia Tei-ch, based some 115 km away in Weinburg at one of the world’s most state-of-the-art aluminum rolling mills, opened by the Constantia Flexibles Group in 2007. Con-stantia Patz is one of its main customers.

At that same time, a laminating and coating machine was put into operation in Loipersbach that is perfectly adjusted to the production width of the aluminum rolls from Constantia Teich. After all, almost all the foils pro-duced at Constantia Patz are either based on aluminum or are a composite containing aluminum foil. A premi-um-grade product, and especially popular for that rea-son, is “Coldform” – three-layered foil composite that can be produced using cold deep-drawing and offers pack-aged goods optimum protection against the effects of light and moisture.

Only Polytype Converting

The aluminum foils are coated or laminated with plastic films on either one or both sides. Both steps in the pro-cess are completed in one work cycle. Constantia Patz

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relies exclusively on the Polytype machines from WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG for this key production stage.

Constantia Patz currently operates six of these laminat-ing and coating systems. “Polytype involves very robust mechanical engineering,” says Rainer Huber, manag-ing director of Constantia Patz Ges.m.b.H. He also gives top marks all round to the project management of the Swiss manufacturer. Indeed, Huber is very pleased with a whole series of technical improvements made to the production line since they took it into operation in No-vember 2013.

The two most recent additions to the Polytype machines were installed in class 8 cleanrooms (to ISO 14644) – the 1,800 mm-wide “Polytype 21” that went into operation in 2008 and the 1,300 mm-wide “Polytype 7” that joined it in 2013. The three cleanroom areas at Constantia Patz can only be accessed via air locks. The atmosphere in-side is at a slight overpressure. Many supply units for the two Polytype coating and laminating machines are housed in separate technical rooms that sit parallel to the machines. The reels for both systems are automati-cally handled by a driverless transportation system. Cor-responding air lock technology ensures the cleanroom chain remains intact.

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Roll slitters in the cleanroom //polytype convection dryers //polytype 7 unwinder

Easily accessible roll-carriers

The two machines are more than 30 meters long and three stories high, and they each have two unwinders, one winder, two Polytype frontal application units and two convection drier sections spanning up to 14 meters – subdivided into drying zones and a recooling unit. Slide-in trolleys make it easy to exchange the roll applicators that are used for applying either coatings or adhesives.It is possible to coat the backing foil on one side and ap-ply adhesive to the reverse, then use a dry lamination process to produce a foil composite. Double-sided coat-ing can be performed by changing over the applicator systems.

Constantia Patz offers a special procedure using a water-based print primer – an in-house development by Con-stantia Flexibles that has proved very popular among customers thanks to its environmental credentials.

Economical production

In order to coat and laminate economically – i.e. with-out excessive makeready times – but also fulfill all cus-tomers’ delivery needs, Constantia Patz operates a du-al-stage production process. Coating and laminating is always performed in a limited number of set roll widths making as much use as possible of the Polytype sys-tems’ full width. These semi-finished products (“master rolls”) are later placed on the 15 roll-slitting systems for

cutting out the final specifications and printing, if appli-cable. This achieves delivery times that are even short-er than the technically defined production time for some foil composites.

Accommodating individual orders in everyday opera-tions so that the machines are well used and the waste volume kept low is one of the company’s major success factors.

Many of the products made in Loipersbach are delivered unprinted to the pharmaceuticals customers for print-

Constantia Patz in brief

Constantia Patz Ges.m.b.H. is a mem-ber of the Constantia Flexibles group, one of the world’s leading manufactur-ers of flexible packaging and labels. In total, 94 percent of its sales revenue is derived from exports, predominantly to other European countries.

The company celebrated its 120th an-niversary last year. The history of Con-stantia Patz stretches back to 1893, when Louis Patz founded the private company Louis Patz & Comp. in Vien-na. Originally based in the electric mo-tors and copper wire sectors, the com-pany began steering toward aluminum processing in 1916. During the 1950s, the new owners started to apply special finishes to this metal for the packaging industry.

The Loipersbach plant was opened in 1976 under the name of K. Heyer Ges.m.b.H. In 1999, the company was acquired by Teich AG and integrated into the Constantia Flexibles group of 80 firms that now operate in more than 20 countries with over 8,000 employ-ees in total. Constantia Flexibles oper-ates 42 production facilities in 18 coun-tries, making it the world’s fourth largest manufacturer of flexible packaging.

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ing in-house or by local contract printers. This offers the pharmaceutical companies flexibility – allowing them to print exactly what’s currently being packaged. Constantia Patz also operates four gravure presses and two flexo-graphic presses that can handle maximum web widths of between 650 and 1,000 mm.

It really helps, especially for developments such as the afore-mentioned print primer, if you can also evaluate the downstream production stages for yourself. While the top side of the blister’s lidding is printed with product information, its underside is given a sealing coat that will later allow the lidding and base foils to be bonded.

Perfect retraceability required

When asked what makes his facility stand out from the rest, Huber immediately cites the comprehensive docu-mentation and certification of the entire production pro-cess, explaining: “Pharmaceuticals manufacturers want perfect retraceability for all batches, dual checking at all stages of production and precise descriptions for organi-zation, procedures and processes.”

Constantia Patz is therefore certified to ISO 9001, phar-maceutical standard ISO 15378 and environmental stan-dard 14001. A Sedex inspection was only recently per-formed to check compliance with social and ethical

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Buffer store for semi-finished goods Ample capacity for finishing the final product

The 1,800 mm wide //polytype 21

Foil in final production

The 1,300 mm wide //polytype 6

Shaping, filling and bonding of the top and base foils can be tested in the Constan tia-Patz laboratory

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standards. Certification of the facility’s energy manage-ment is already planned. Its quality management is par-ticularly thorough and monitored around the clock – in line with the plant’s three production shifts.

Orderliness, cleanliness and documentation have all be-come second nature to the workforce at Constantia Patz. And it really helps, as audits are anything other than rare and stressful occurrences at Loipersbach, but rather a constant state of affairs. Huber estimates that repre-sentatives from their customer base perform supplier in-spections around 25 times per year.

Constantia Patz values these audits as a chance to assess its own performance, also in comparative terms against the competition. For this reason, either Huber or his fel-low manager Robert Edelsbacher always attend the au-dit debriefings to gain ongoing feedback from their cus-tomers.

Safety is paramount

The pharmaceutical industry is dominated by safety con-siderations right down to packaging production. This means any innovations or product modifications always require a high degree of professionalism in product man-agement and countless test runs. As such, Constantia Patz and WIFAG-Polytype Technologies both operate ex-tensive laboratories and test centers for very good rea-son.

The decision to produce packaging foils in cleanroom conditions arises from this safety aspect. Constantia Patz has purposefully pursued this approach for years, some-thing that many customers note with great satisfaction.

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1 3 24

6

5 7

The Techma-4 modules: � Unwind; � Preheating; � Printer; � Dryer; � Cooling; � Web control; � Rewind

Printing unit with temperature-controlled central cylinder

Printed web in the chill roller assembly

technicalWater-based inkjet printing in the Technology Center

Visitors to the wifag//polytype open house, which was held in Fr-ibourg at the beginning of June, were the first external specialists to see the Techma-4 system in ac-tion. They were also able to find out details about the current state of development. The demonstra-tion involved printing an OPP film in four colors using the company’s own water-based inkjet inks at a speed of 50 meters per second.

The Techma 4 digital press – a roll-to-roll system – was added to the equipment in the wifag//polytype Group’s Technology Center in Fribourg, Switzerland, several months ago. This press has helped the engineers in the Digital Competence Center to achieve a breakthrough in water-based inkjet printing on plastic film and aluminum foils. Any customer or interested party can now go to the site and see this for themselves.

Only practical tests provide reliable resultsThe Techma-4 can process rolls up to 700 m in width, with a maxi-mum print width of 670 mm. The minimum web width is 150 mm. A manually-operated roll-carri-er, which can accommodate rolls weighing up to 1,350 kg, is followed by a pre-heating unit, whose roll-ers can regulate temperatures be-tween 20 and 90 degrees Celsius. The central cylinder that the web is fed over during the printing pro-cess can also be kept in this tem-perature range.

The print heads are arranged above the cylinder in an arc. They are cur-rently set up for printing at a reso-lution of 600 x 600 dpi in four col-ors (CMYK). This enables a printing speed of up to 100 m/min.

After printing comes a flexible dry-ing section and a recooling unit. The convection dryer is a total of 4.5 meters long, and consists of three sections that can be inde-pendently activated and controlled. One section is prepared for hybrid drying – that is to say, hot air plus infra-red. The dryer is at a temper-ature of 250 degrees Celsius, and heats the web to about 100 de-grees Celsius.

Wide range of possible substrates

It is particularly important to note the wide variety of potential sub-strates that can be processed in the test facility. In addition to the

This is a significant achievement for WIFAG Polytype Technologies AG. “We can now work togeth-er with customers to implement their specific product and process solutions,” says CEO Jörgen Karls-son, who explained at the open house that the research and de-velopment strategy of the com-pany was to focus on joint proj-ects.

The technology of the Techma-4

The Techma-4 digital press is the wifag//polytype Group’s fourth large test facility. All the systems are designed to be particular-ly flexible so that– in line with the broad focus of the corporate group – provide meaningful answers can be found to a wide variety of ques-tions.

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The Techma-4 can print water-based inks on foil/film

Temperature control of all web guiding modules is particularly important

The secrets to success - inks, primers and receptive layers

technicalNew Competence Center for Inks & Materials

On February 1, 2014, Dr. Lars Sommerhäuser, the former chief operating officer (COO) and man-aging director of Ilford Imaging Switzerland GmbH in Marly (Swiss canton of Fribourg), and ten other employees from the photograph-ic paper manufacturer Ilford Im-aging joined the wifag//polytype Group. Ilford had gone bankrupt at the end of 2013 following the

wifag//polytype now also houses extensive expertise for developing inkjet inks and functional layers. A group of chemists, laboratory tech-nicians and process engineers led by Dr. Lars Sommerhäuser opened an additional competence center at WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG in February 2014.

In-house inks expertise enables inkjet printing on an industrial scale

collapse of the photographic paper market.

The new team has formed an ad-ditional competence center at WI-FAG-Polytype Technologies AG. This model was already imple-mented very successfully with the Digital Competence Center (DCC) led by Roger Ineichen and the Au-tomation Competence Center (ACC)

run by Rolf Mani. The DCC and ACC also offer their expertise to exter-nal companies working on custom-ized solutions in printing, coating and automation.

This additional expertise in materi-als rounds off the portfolio at WI-FAG-Polytype Technologies AG to a tee – building on the existing synergies between system engi-neering, conventional printing and coating, automation and workflow, software solutions and digital print-ing. Now ink formulation and func-tional layers development have also joined their ranks. The pos-sibilities this opens up at wifag//polytype lift it head and shoulders above any of the competition and turn the company into a bona fide end-to-end solutions supplier.

This makes wifag//polytype not only an attractive partner in its es-tablished fields of business, but also captures entirely new spheres beyond publishing and packaging. Dr. Sommerhäuser, who holds a doctorate in mechanical engineer-ing, gave a thorough presentation of the expertise offered by the in-coming team from Ilford at the //polytype open house event in Fri-bourg.

Cross-functional teams

Operations at wifag//polytype are characterized more than ever by multi- and cross-functional teams working together on individual product and process solutions for

36 µm-thick PET film seen at the open house, plastic films rang-ing from about 10 µm to over 250 µm in thickness and aluminum foils between 6 and 100 µm thick are also supported. Paper substrates of 45 to 200 gsm and folding car-ton board of up to 380 gsm have also already been tested success-fully. “In fact, we can work with all the substrates that are commonly used in converting,” says Roger In-eichen, head of the Digital Compe-tence Center.

With the exception of the Kyoc-era print heads it uses, the Tech-ma-4 was developed entirely by WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG, and therefore exemplifies the pos-sibilities the company now has to offer. These include the mechani-cal engineering, web transport and drying technology expertise that is clear to see on the press, but also less visible aspects such as wifag//polytype’s own CALMAR system, which controls the print heads.

The Technology Center can also pre-treat the webs with primer, if required. The Techma-1, Techma-2 and Techma-3 lines are designed for coating and drying tests.

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Functional layersDr. Lars Sommerhäuser at the presentation

Digital Printing Packaging Active Layers Optical Films

technical

It is crucial to use the right pig-ments and colorants in inkjet inks. Customized solutions can be re-quired as early on as this – for ex-ample if there is a need to avoid metamerism (color shifts caused by different light sources) for a specific application. Color pigments for inkjet printing must not possess any abrasive edges to avoid dam-aging the jets, but also need to be tiny enough to be sprayed with-out problem from, for example, the 2,656 jets of a Kyocera print head in droplets measuring between 5 and 18 picoliters.

Even if wifag//polytype does not perform all of the stages involved in developing and manufacturing the inks or the necessary colorants or pigments itself, the company needs the appropriate expertise to evaluate the quality of the materi-als supplied by its respective part-ners. The same applies to the for-mulation of the ink recipe, which

always forms the basis of cost-ef-ficient large-scale production. “The price for the inkjet ink represents a decisive factor in determining whether a printing technology is ultimately economically viable and competitively marketable,” Som-merhäuser says.

Multilayer design

The ability to offer water-based ink for printing on plastics and alumi-num foils, which is likely to prove lucrative in the future, depends quite significantly on preparing the substrates appropriately. Primer development is a fundamental el-ement in the proper functioning of inkjet printing processes. It falls un-der the field of “ink-receptive lay-ers”, expertise that now forms a particular specialty at wifag//poly-type. Ilford Imaging had been par-ticularly heavily involved in the production of inkjet photographic

papers, which are a good example of a multilayer design.

Sommerhäuser explains, “A typical inkjet paper consists of four layers – the bottom layer is adhesive, fol-lowed by the absorptive layer, the pigment fixation layer and a top layer to protect against mechan-ical damage.” Ideally, if you can choose the design of the receptive layer, he says, you will inevitably opt for a multilayer construction. This provides the optimum means of accommodating very different requirements relating to the print-ing substrate or its ink-receptive layer. It’s advantageous that Poly-type Converting used to supply Il-ford with its coating technology. Now, both teams of experts have joined forces at wifag//polytype in Fribourg – specializing in ink and receptive layers on the one hand, and coating technology on the oth-er – all under one roof.

the company’s customers. And the new arrivals at the Inks & Materials Competence Center can inject their expertise at all levels.

Dr. Sommerhäuser identifies a close correlation between products and processes: “It is absolutely vital to de-velop products and processes in par-allel, otherwise ultimately you won’t be able to manufacture the prod-uct really cost-efficiently.” It’s a prin-ciple that wifag//polytype pursues quite rigorously. Just as the compa-ny adapts its focus to each individual concept, so they are all highly geared toward industrial production.

Take inkjet inks, for example. WI-FAG-Polytype Technologies AG works on customer projects that are aimed at completely replac-ing classical analog printing proce-dures with digital printing. In this case, it’s not about imprinting units or a couple of address lines, but re-ally large-scale production printing. The inkjet ink needed on this scale certainly doesn’t come in 12-ml cartridges. Dr. Sommerhäuser and his team have brought along ex-tensive know-how in just the right field. Knowledge of the ink manu-facturing process is just one aspect.

The right pigment size

Each of the following six areas of activity has its own four chemists and laboratory technicians or ma-chine operators plus an expert in nano or process technology:

Inks Surface preparation (primer solutions) Coating/functional layers Material testing Process/product adaptations and developments wifag//polytype Group’s Technology Center in Fribourg

Dr. Lars Sommerhäuser (4th from the left) and ten other former members of the Ilford R&D team are back in top form. The new team expands the end-to-end service wifag//polytype offers to the printing, coating and converting industry. In the picture, 4th from right: Jörgen Karlsson, CEO at WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG; far left: Esa-Matti Aalto, managing director of WIFAG-Polytype GmbH (Hamburg, Germany), a subsidiary of Polytype Converting AG (Fribourg, Switzerland). Ms. Rita Hofmann is missing in this picture.

Packaging

Inkjet printed films

Printed Electronics

Laser ablation films

Architecture

Inkjet decor paper

Paper / Cardboard

Barrier layers

Metal foils

Blister aluminum foils

Plastic films

Shrink sleeve labels

Energy

Coating for batteries

Agriculture

Pesticide release films

Personal care

Medical sensors

Displays

Anti-reflection films

Security

Forgery-proof labels

Lighting

LED light diffuser films

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Image & Print Quality

Permanence & Durability

Physical Properties

Liquid Characterization

Chemical Analysis

Microscopic Methods

technicalOEM partnership with Steinemann Technology

The dmax high-perfor- mance inkjet printing machine (dmax stands for „digital maximum“) is designed for spot coating with a maximum print format of 1060 x 750 mm (max. sheet format: 1080 x 780 mm). The maximum throughput is 10,000 sheets per hour or 100 m/min. The coating can be ap-plied at a resolution of 600 x 600 dpi.

Steinemann Technology developed the machine to in-clude an individual sheet feed with KBA suction head, sheet alignment, sheet cleaning calender, vacuum sheet transporter for consistently reproducible coating results, printing unit, UV dryer, sheet inspection and stacker. WIFAG-Polytype Technologies supplied the entire digital technology ¬– consisting of its CALMAR print head electronics and software-based print head adjustor – plus the print head cleaner unit and coating supply.

Two Swiss companies – machine manufactur-er Steinemann Technology (St. Gallen) and Schmid Rhyner, manufacturer of coatings and laminating ad-hesives (Adliswil/Zurich) – unveiled the “dmax”, the world’s first large-format digital sheet coating ma-chine, to industry experts at the start of June 2014. The entire digital application for this groundbreak-ing technology was developed, integrated and put into operation as part of an OEM contract by WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG. The venture demonstrat-ed the extraordinary potential of the Digital Compe-tence Center.

DCC provides entire digital application for coating machine

One year to develop and construct

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG signed the OEM agreement with Steinemann Technology in May 2013. In order to secure the OEM contract, WIFAG-Poly-type not only had to submit bids but also demonstrate the commensurate technical expertise. The finished, working machine was revealed to the press exactly one year later.

Capturing new areas of application

wifag//polytype has not only tak-en on Ilford’s development team, but with it a series of nanotechnol-ogy patents. Sommerhäuser says, “If you want to create a transpar-ent top layer that is both glossy and capable of absorbing water-based inkjet inks, you will need to use nano-sized particles.” Their cir-cumference of approximately 30 nanometers makes them far small-er than the wavelength of light (at 400 - 470 nm) and therefore invis-ible.

Particles like these can also play a big role in “functional layers”. These days, the term covers very different products and applications – from heat-sensitive food packag-ing and holographic foils to batter-ies. So it’s a safe bet that the new wifag//polytype Inks & Materi-als Competence Center will do far more than just offer end-to-end solutions for existing markets. It will also capture new fields of ap-plication, such as in medicine.

Nanoporous layers, which give rise to an extremely large total surface area by virtue of their numerous tiny pores in the layer of nanopar-ticles, can be used to create ex-tremely sensitive sensors. Dr. Som-merhäuser used the following example to explain this to visitors at the open house event: “Printing a layer that is A4 in size creates a functional surface the size of three

tennis courts.” In the agriculture sector, foils can be given “function-al layers” containing crop protec-tion agents, for example, which are released into the soil underneath the foil once a certain humidity level is attained. The time taken to release the agent can be adjusted as necessary.

From theory to practice

wifag//polytype can use its exten-sive test laboratories and entire technology center to show custom-ers just how such concepts might function in practice. The company now has four coating systems and an inkjet printing system that can

manufacture test products using a roll-to-roll process that closely rep-licates actual manufacturing condi-tions.

This makes wifag//polytype a top name not just for Swiss-qual-ity machines, but for every up-stream development stage, too. If a production process can no longer quite keep pace with the latest re-quirements, for instance. Dr. Som-merhäuser says, “We are the right partners for a whole host of devel-opment projects.” And size is no object, of course, because “We al-ways consider industrial-scale pro-cesses and the production environ-ment that prevails in that setting.”

Equipment and know-how to test and characterize materials

Image and print quality: gamut, optical density, coalescence, …

Permanence and durability: light fastness, water fastness, abrasion, …

Physical properties: weight, caliper, stiffness, shrinkage, opacity, curl, …

Liquid characterization: density, pH value, surface tension, viscosity, …

Chemical analysis: UV, FT IR and fluorescence spectroscopy, …

Microscopic methods: SEM/TEM, turbiscan, particle size distribution, …

We closely collaborate with customers and external partners to offer

further testing and characterization methods if needed

Testing and Characterization

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The CALMAR electronic control system is a DCC development

Print head cleaning unit

The Steinemann dmax in action

The DCC team of the Steinemann project: Nicolas Spielmann, Carlos Andrade, Nicolas Aebischer, Florian Fässler, Emanuel Müller, Roman Widmer, Roger In-eichen, Daniel Wittwer

technicalThe coating unit consists of two rows, each with twenty neighboring and overlapping coating applica-tion heads. The dual row is capable of doubling the maximum speed for the given application volume, but it can also provide redundant capacity instead so as to improve the appearance of the coating.

operation and is using it to add special haptic coating finishes to calendars, visiting cards, postcards and var-ious other print products. The digital coating machine is meant to apply flexible coating volumes anywhere between 4 gsm and 35 gsm. To ensure the best possi-ble correlation between coating and print image, each

The coating technology itself was developed by Schmid Rhyner and is patented. Bern Higher Technical College was also involved in the process engineering.

WIFAG-Polytype invested its many years of experi-ence in designing supply and cleaning systems for ink-jet inks. For example, inkjet inks need to be degassed to enable a clean “jetting” action.

Also suitable for manufacturing folding cartons

The target markets for this new technology are com-mercial printing and packaging manufacturing. The large format of the new digital coating machine makes it particularly suitable for manufacturing folding car-tons, as explained during the presentation of the tech-nology to the press.

Mainfranken, which runs the “Flyeralarm” ordering portal, was the first printing plant to put the dmax into

sheet is automatically measured and then any nec-essary adjustments are made to the position and ori-entation of the coating image. WIFAG-Polytype uses the integrated PLC of the CALMAR system to perform this operation. Any distortions to the printed sheet, as can occur during the offset process, can also be com-pensated. WIFAG Polytype Technologies added a cus-tomer-specific module to its standard software for this purpose.

Steinemann and Schmid Rhyner say the ability of this new inkjet technology to simultaneously apply differ-ent thicknesses and textures of coating to the sheet means the machine can add haptic effects at the same time as areas of gloss in a single pass. This has been a very complicated procedure in both screen and flexo printing in the past.

Applying completely new technology

The exclusive OEM partnership involved the joint defi-nition of sales targets together with Steinemann Tech-nology because all the companies involved plowed considerable investments into the project. A second coating machine is already being planned.

Roger Ineichen, head of the Digital Competence Cen-ter, is proud of what they have achieved: “We man-aged to integrate our technology into a completely new type of machine within the space of one year.” n

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The open house presentations gave a detailed insight into the new WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Checking the inkjet-printed plastic cups

Roger Ineichen explains the Techma-4

Hubert Rawyler demonstrates the hybrid printing

events

in //polytype’s cup printing seg-ment lies in part in the precision-feeding of the items being printed. The standard choice of printing pro-cedure has been dry offset to date. Up to 700 curved-surface cups per minute can be processed this way. But now direct digital print-ing offers an additional new op-tion alongside conventional tech-nologies such as shrink sleeves, in-mold labeling or paper labeling. The Digi Cup’s printing unit is sup-plied by the Digital Competence Center at WIFAG-Polytype Technol-ogies AG. And there is strong inter-est in the industry.

It’s a similar story when it comes to the machines Polytype supplies for printing plastic tubes. Hubert E. Rawyler, head of Plastic Tubes, used the open house event to demonstrate a hybrid machine that combines six digital print heads,

classical offset and subsequent protective coating. The plastic sur-faces require pre-treatment with a primer to improve the adhesive-ness of the inkjet inks.

“Quite monumental”

Dr. Sommerhäuser had already touched on the subject in his pre-sentation on Inks & Materials, and it plays a major role at wifag//poly-

Open house event launches WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG

Alongside CEO Jörgen Karlsson’s presentation of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG, Digital Print man-ager Roger Ineichen’s detailed run-through of the expanded oppor-tunities for WIFAG-Polytype’s own inkjet printing technology formed a key focus of the morning session. Dr. Lars Sommerhäuser, head of Inkjet Inks and Materials, outlined the extra know-how in inkjet inks, receiving layers and functional lay-ers that came with the arrival of an entire development team from Ilford.

Pleasantly surprised

Visitors to the site in western Swit-zerland from as far afield as the United States and China, were pleasantly surprised by the techno-logical breadth of the new compa-ny. Some of them were only famil-iar with individual segments up to that point, such as Polytype Con-

The open house event held in Fribourg, Switzerland, at the start of June 2014 marking the joint launch of WIFAG and Polytype Convert-ing as part of the WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG family was a great success. Some 50 experts in newspaper printing, coating and finishing came to learn about the renamed company’s strong focus on research and development and its orientation toward customer projects. The premiere of the Techma-4 test printing machine was a major highlight.

Water-based inkjet digital printing under close customer inspection

verting’s and Pagendarm’s laminat-ing technology, or //wifag’s news-paper printing presses. The group got to witness first-hand the many interlinking activities and comple-mentary know-how now to be found under the one roof at WI-

FAG-Polytype Technologies AG as they toured the production halls and Technology Center in Fribourg.

Daniel Wider, head of Container Printing at Polytype AG, offered a

live demonstration of the Digi Cup 40 – a machine that is capable of digitally printing white oval or rect-angular plastic cups at a rate of 300 mm per second using inkjet tech-nology. This involves the use of UV inks and a UV dryer. The expertise

type, quite irrespective of the sub-strate’s form, whether web or 3D. Surface pre-treatment is part of the company’s extensive expertise when it comes to printing, coat-ing or applying adhesive layers to plastics, foils or aluminum surfaces. Some of an ink’s functions ¬– such as its adhesiveness – can be trans-ferred to the primer. This can make the ink itself cheaper and open up new applications for digital printing.

Jörgen Karlsson, CEO of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG, classi-fies the new ability to print these surfaces using water-based ink-jet inks as “quite monumental”. He now banks on the use of digi-tal printing for food packaging (as “food approved”).

The “Techma 4” was constructed, among other things, for basic de-velopment in this sphere and for

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Hubert E. Rawyler explains the possibilities for printing on plastic tubes to interested visitors

Right on top: Ernst Meier, Head of Sales at Coa-ting & Laminating, in the Technology CenterRight center: Gilbert Gugler explains what the FlexCo test system can doRight bottom: Print premiere with water-based inks on film/foil

The print quality of the //wifag evolution 371 is examined up close Concentration levels are high

View of the mail room

eventsUser meeting with a future view

The host of this year's meet-ing was Ringier Print Adligenswil AG, near Lucerne, one of the larg-est newspaper printing facilities in Switzerland. In addition to daily newspapers (Blick, Neue Luzern-er Zeitung), customer newsletters for Migros and Coop and a number of trade, party, church and special interest newspapers are produced

At the //wifag users Meeting ( June 26-27,2014), there was a clear focus on looking forward: Representatives of newspaper printers from Ger-many, Slovakia and Switzerland learned about the range of technical opportunities for newspaper production that are arising from //wifag‘s reorganization.

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG offers a broad basis for new developments in newspaper printing

here. Ringier Print Adligenswil last modernized its machinery with WIFAG Evolution 371 rotations in 2009. Where is the future of newspa-per printing? – That was the cen-tral question of the two-day event, which included a mix of presenta-tions and company tours as well

as ample time to network, includ-ing during a boat cruise on Lake Lu-cerne. However, attendees were mainly interested in the increasing tech-nological breadth of WIFAG-Poly-type Technologies AG, where digi-tal printing, coating and laminating was recently merged with the ro-tation machines area. Thanks to

the ensuing customer projects. This is ¬a roll-to-roll, single-pass inkjet printing system that complements the existing coating, laminating and flexo printing systems (“Tech-ma 1 to 3”) of the Technology Cen-ter in Fribourg. The Techma-4 can, of course, be used for plastic films,

aluminum foils, paper and card substrates – from thin 50-gsm dec-orative papers to 380g card. The full length of the 4.5-meter drying section (hot air plus a hybrid sec-tion with infrared in variable wave-lengths) is only needed if non-ab-sorptive substrates need printing and the water components have to be evaporated from the ink.

New kind of beverage packaging

The open house tour was rounded off with stops at the other plants of the in-house technology cen-ter, Techma 1 and 2, and the Fl-exCo line. These are designed for performing coating, laminating and

drying tests. Process specialists Dr. Peter M. Schweizer and Gilbert Gu-gler explained these machines’ ca-pabilities to the visitors, and how the test results they provide on a “semi-industrial scale” can be very effectively transferred to the tech-nology installed at customers’ sites.

Visitors were also given a tour of the “Still Can” production line that produces and fills new-style, ex-ceptionally lightweight and ma-terial-saving beverage packaging from foil composite. Still Can of-fers an alternative to bottles, cans or drinks cartons using material de-veloped by packaging manufactur-er Huhtamaki and mechanical and process engineering from Polytype.

nits proprietary expertise in the ar-eas of software, print head control, web threading and drying as well as inks and materials, WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG can now offer a complete range of both tradition-al and digital production solutions. And such solutions should, empha-sized CEO Jörgen Karlsson, be devised in collaboration with customers.

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The wifag//polytype team after the user meeting on Lake Lucerne Kurt Hegele/MD Ringier Print Adligenswil AG Bernd Zipper/MD zipcon consulting GmbH Jörgen Karlsson/MD WIFAG-Polytype Technologies

Existing and potential customers enjoy the trip

events

On the first day of the event, par-ticipants at the user meeting fol-lowing the welcome by Kurt Hegele (CEO of Ringier Print) and Hugo Haymoz (Head of Custom-er Services //wifag) were able to learn more about Ringier Print Adli-genswil.

Bernd Zipper (CEO of Zipcon Con-sulting) then looked ahead to the year 2030 in his presentation. How will newspapers change? Will people even read newspa-pers in the future? The increasing online presence of media already makes reading newspapers seem old fashioned. "However, there will always be a justification for newspapers, especially thanks to the flexible printing options of ink-jet printing," said Zipper. One ob-servation is that the trend toward personalization and individualiza-tion continues to move forward

– i.e., customers can put togeth-er their own newspapers and tai-lor them to their personal prefer-ences. More business news or a more detailed look at sports are just some of the many possibili-ties. Visually-impaired people can set their newspaper to large-print mode, rendering the cumbersome task of using a magnifying glass unnecessary. Zipper urged people to change their thinking and add-ed: "Take advantage of the new digital printing technology and come up with new ideas for mak-ing newspapers more attractive."

Hugo Haymoz opened the second day of the meeting with informa-tion about the new organization of the service area. All of the service areas of the former WIFAG Mas-chinenfabrik AG, Polytype Con-verting AG and the Digital Printing business area of Polytype AG have been merged into WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG. The aim of this merger is to promote the trans-fer of knowledge of the respec-tive technologies (offset, digital, converting) in order to be able to utilize a broader resource basis. As Haymoz emphasized, "All contacts, services and products will remain the same. Service agreements and contracts will also be taken over and continued unchanged." Next, Pascal Clemencon (Technical Sales) introduced the results of the "gloss coating for newspapers" tri-al series. In these trials, the coat-

ing was rolled over an anilox roller onto the printed newsprint in the conventional manner.

However, because of the raw struc-ture of the paper the coating flows

ular, the personalization of news-papers, as Bernd Zipper discussed, will require more flexible print-ing processes. For example, the same newspaper run can include text that remains the same (offset

into the "valleys" and from an an-gle of approx. 60 degrees the coat-ing effects disappears completely behind the "hills". As a result, this process is not suited for producing high-quality gloss. At most, it helps with the abrasion protection of the printing ink. Carsten Salomo (Digital Compe-tence Center project manager) then showed an alternative op-tion for coating using digital print-ing technology. Even spot coating is now possible with inkjet print-ing. //wifag already provides the corresponding print modules with print head control and color pro-vision for Steinemann AG. "Thus, a module can also be integrated seamlessly into newspaper rota-tion machines," said Salomo, who also provided an overview of the current state of technology with regard to inkjet printing. In partic-

printing) and personalized con-tent, such as horoscopes, specif-ic articles, addresses, etc. (digital printing). Rolf Mani (Head of Automation) then discussed the numerous ret-rofit projects for newspaper print-ing machines that have been un-derway over the past several months. For example, new drive retrofits have been installed for roll changers, draw rollers and satel-lites around the world.

In addition, color register controls, cutting position controls, expand-ers, etc. have been integrated into the existing equipment. With the "Alpina" control panel and the de-velopment of a proprietary color thickness regulator, further impor-tant steps toward the automation of newspaper printing have been taken.

In conclusion, Jörgen Karlsson dis-cussed the new WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG. "We are merg-ing our expertise in newspaper and book printing with the coat-ing, finishing and drying technolo-

gy," said Karlsson. He added: "We can now meet customer needs more flexibly and quicker. We now have the ability to provide individ-ual print modules through to the complete equipment with devel-oped print and finishing processes from a single source." Jörgen Karls-son underscored the stability of WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG to the company's newspaper print-ing partners. He continued: "Even if newspaper printing goes digital in the future, we have the right tech-nology for you." User Meeting 2015 take place in Fr-ibourg in order to be able to dem-onstrate the digital printing tech-nologies of the technology center located there.

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Large picture on left: An important voice in Shreveport: „The Times“

Bottom: The print shop for the WIFAG OF790

View of the installation work at WIFAG-Polytype

Rotary printing press in Shreveport, Louisiana to be modernized

Gannett, one of the leading US me-dia companies, puts its trust in the retrofit expertise of the Wifag//Po-lytype Group. Gannett Publishing Services, a subsidiary of Gannett Co., Inc. , recently contracted WI-FAG to modernize a WIFAG OF790 offset rotary press in Shreveport, Louisiana.

The machine upgrades under this contract will help significantly re-duce waste quantities and setup times.

Gannett Trusts in the Retrofit Expertise of Wifag//Polytype

Along with the installation of four new WIFAG control consoles, the retrofit contract covers the mo-dernization of six autopasters, im-provements in web threading and some new drives and control elec-tronics. The new control conso-les will feature the production pl-anning system EAE Print, among other things.

The work is being carried out by automation experts from WIFAG (Fribourg, Switzerland) and their US subsidiary Polytype America Corp. (Mahwah, New Jersey). It is

slated to start in June and should be finished by the end of October 2014.

The line of printing presses was ori-ginally part of a larger production plant put into operation at Ringier in Switzerland in 1991. It was dis-mantled in 2008 by the Dutch com-pany GWS and reconfigured for a new installation. The WIFAG OF790 went back on line in Shreveport in 2010. It was only the third rotary press in Berliner format for the US market.

"The Times" printing plant in Shreveport is one of 43 printing and further processing facilities operated by Gannett Publishing Services. "The Times" has a circu-lation of about 35,000 (Mon – Sat) and 50,000 on Sunday (2012 figu-res). n

news

Imprint

Publisher/editorial office:WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG26, route de la GlâneCH-1701 Fribourg/Switzerland

Phone: +41 26 426 11 11Fax: +41 26 426 11 12

info@wifag-polytype.comwww.wifag-polytype.com

Integrated into the production line’s

Mondi manufactures silicon papers, silicon foils and thermo-coated foils at its Hilm plant. This means the DAB/DAU 1250 W winders sup-plied by WIFAG-Polytype are not just designed for paper, but also with plastic films and aluminum foils in mind.

The Mondi order involves configur-ing the winder and unwinder for an existing production line and then

Hamburg, September 2014 – Mondi Release Liner Austria GmbH has commissioned WIFAG-Polytype GmbH (Hamburg, Germany) to provide a complete solution for a new coating-line winder/unwinder system at its Hilm facility in Lower Austria.

WIFAG-Polytype to supply winder/ unwinder system to Mondi’s Hilm plant

integrating them into its mechan-ical and control engineering sys-tems. Dismantling and reassem-bly in Hilm are scheduled for New Year 2014/2015, with startup and production due to commence early January 2015.

The Hilm facility was opened in 2001 and acquired by Mondi, an in-ternational packaging and paper business with production facilities

in 31 countries and around 26,000 employees, in 2007. In 2013, Mon-di recorded sales of EUR 6.5 billion and 15.3 percent return on capi-tal employed (ROCE). Its key mar-kets are in central Europe, Russia, America and South Africa.

The restructuring of the wifag//polytype Group during the past twelve months and the resulting creation of WIFAG-Polytype Tech-nologies AG have heralded sweep-ing changes at the Hamburg site. Alongside a new name – on April 1, 2014, former Pagendarm BTT GmbH became WIFAG-Polytype GmbH – the Hamburg-based team was also accorded new responsi-bilities and authorities plus the req-uisite extra personnel. Digital and automation solutions now form ad-ditional areas of focus. Thus the Hamburg plant has the company’s entire portfolio at its disposal for completing the Mondi order – in-cluding the necessary automation technology. n

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AG26, route de la GlâneCH-1701 Fribourg/Switzerland

Phone +41 26 426 11 11Fax +41 26 426 11 12

info@wifag-polytype.comwww.wifag-polytype.com

ASIA

WIFAG-Polytype China Ltd.Hong Kong/China

Wifag-Polytype India Marketing Private Ltd. New Delhi/India

Polytype Asia Pacific Co., Ltd. Chachoengsao/Thailand

NORTH AMERICA

Polytype America Corp.Mahwah, NJ/USA

SOUTH AMERICA

Polytype South & Central America Comercial Ltda.Cotia - SP/Brazil

SWITZERLAND

WIFAG-Polytype Holding AGFribourg/Switzerland

WIFAG-Polytype Technologies AGFribourg/Switzerland

Polytype AGFribourg/Switzerland

Polytype Converting AGFribourg/Switzerland

Mall + Herlan Schweiz AGPfyn/Switzerland

SWEDEN

WP Scandinavia ABKalmar/Sweden

GERMANY

Mall + Herlan GmbHPfinztal/Germany

Mall Herlan MB GmbHNeuhausen ob Eck/Germany

WIFAG-Polytype GmbHHamburg/Germany

ITALY

Mall + Herlan Italia S.r.l.Seriate (BG)/Italy

OMV MACHINERY S.R.LParona-Verona/Italy

TURKEY

WIFAG POLYTYPE MIDDLE EAST MAKiNE TiC. VE PAZ. A.Ş.Istanbul/Turkey