THE ART OF BAG PRINTING
In 2009 the company invested in a ten colour, 1350mm wide Soma Flex Imperia 10 EG flexographic printing press to meet increased capacity and enable a wider range of manufacturing options.
This was followed by the purchase of a Pluto II slitting and rewinding machine also supplied by Soma.
“We were looking for a press with the ability to print on a wide range of substrates with fast job changeover at a competitive price,” says Georgiev. “We wanted a press with good stability to provide optimum print quality as well as reliable service and support from the vendor. The Soma Flex Imperia meets these criteria and at a reasonable price to equipment ratio.
We can change jobs very quickly and achieve very high quality printing and cannot fault the service and support we get from Soma. The machine also gives us more printing options such as10 + 10 printing and our operators appreciate the fast set-up and sleeve changeover as everything is carried out via computer interface. We have also gained new customers by being able to take on work that can’t be produced on our other flexographic printing presses. Average print jobs are from 150 to 390 meter per minute but more usually we run at around 200. The Imperia is used for many different orders. Sometimes we run 10-15 different jobs per three shifts
, sometimes only one.
Generally, we use the Soma machine for short run orders that require process printing and high screen counts. In some cases we have actually been successful in using the Imperia to replace offset printed bags with flexo. The machine has been working in our factory for 16 months and we are fully satisfied. If we want to buy second machine of the same type
, it will be from same company.”