PETpla.net Insider 11 / 2020

CAPS & CLOSURES 39 PETplanet Insider Vol. 21 No. 11/20 www.petpla.net PETplanet: These are the facts. But when listening to the industry, I hear general reservations being expressed about the value of digital printing, despite the fact that a number of companies have been trying to digitally print PET bottles on a commercial basis for years. Maibach: Printing on a bottle is more difficult to achieve over large areas. You have a 3-D rotation body which has relatively high geometric tolerances. This makes the printing technology and with it the machine extremely complex. The caps have an advantage in that only the upper surface is printed, essentially a 2-D print which you will recognise from your office or home printer. A sealing cap is also made within very tight geometric tolerances which means that the surface to be printed is always positioned directly under the printing head. In addition, our printer does not use mechanical holders for the closures, so there is no risk to damage the parts inside where the sealing is located. PETplanet: As a new company, how do want to go about making yourselves known to your customers? Maibach: Evolution over the last 5 years has taken place at IMDvista. The fact that the success of the technol- ogy has now been recognised by customers has enabled us to spin-off this business to CAPrint in 2020. This means that we can benefit from the developmental know-how and production potential of IMD Ltd while at the same time trad- ing on the market as an independent company where we are setting up our own sales and service structure. CAPrint CAPrint 1.0 printing system is an digital printing system that uses CMYK colours. Hapa supplies the print- ing engine. White is also used to produce light print images on dark caps. Firstly, pre-treatment of the caps which reduces the surface tension of the plastic closure. Caps are then passed underneath the printing heads which are put in place in a row. Imaging how precise this movement must be, it is not surprisingly that this was one of the most difficult hurdles to take. Finally, curing takes place using UV LEDs. The configu- rated system is set up to produce printing speeds of up to 90,000 caps/hour, depending on size of the closures. The cap is moved on a conveyor belt underneath the printing heads. There is no manual handling, thereby avoiding any potential physical damage. The User Interface simplifies the use of the system and makes it an easy to run solution. CAPrint Ltd has been officially trading on the market since this summer and is a sister company of IMD Ltd. Matthias Hermle is President of both companies. www.caprint.ch Michael Krueger by the CAPrint system, examining printed cap. CAPrint system motan-colortronic gmbh - info@motan-colortronic.de www.motan-colortronic.com ETA plus® considerably reduces energy consumption and protects materials. Drying has never been this efficient: ETA plus ® LUXOR A