Main picture: left to right Piero, Aldo, Federica, Francesca and Alessandro Gasparini
When Arca-Box from Palazzolo in the Italian province of Brescia bought its five-colour Rapida 105 with coater and equipment for cartonboard and film printing in 2000, it was the most advanced press of the day on the market. Back then, the Rapida 105 was fitted with six interdeck dryers for UV printing and three UV lamps in the delivery extension.
Subsequently, the company recently invested in an unusual KBA press — a seven-colour Rapida 106 with coater tower, two interdeck dryers and another coater in front of the three-fold delivery extension. True to the packaging manufacturer’s philosophy on its website: “We have always focused on the best technology the market has to offer. The quality of the technology used is in direct relation to the quality of the finished products. In its constant adherence to a process of investment and innovation, Arca-Box has succeeded in achieving a high standard of facilities and meticulous, perfected production.”
A member of the group owned by the Gasparini family (Scatolificio Gasparini), Arca-Box has been in the packaging business since 1948. The company designs and produces high quality presentation packaging. It weathered the crisis years in the industry thanks to the passion of the owners, brothers Aldo and Gaetano Gasparini, long-standing experience, extensive know-how and a high degree of specialisation. The third generation of the family is already involved in the business. Aldo Gasparini’s daughters Federica and Francesca work at Arca-Box in the technical-commercial and administration departments respectively. Their youngest brother Alessandro is just finishing his engineering studies and aims to return to the company once he has gained some professional experience abroad.
Value chain
The entire value chain process in the production of high quality packaging at Arca-Box is realised with state-of-the-art machinery and systems.
The owners have long been toying with the idea of a new sheetfed offset press to complement the Rapid 105, which has been in operation for 16 years, and an even older Rapida 104. Under no time pressure, the selection process was well-considered and resulted in the decision to invest in an extra-long medium-format Rapida with 12 printing and finishing units.
The ‘newcomer’ has already greatly enhanced productivity in its first few months of operation. It has also demonstrated a high degree of versatility with extensive in-line finishing options, exceeding by far the expectations of the Arco-Box management. With its raised foundations and fast makeready, it is also equipped for UV production. Further features include in-line ink metering, QualiTronic ColorControl and DensiTronic Professional for densitometric and spectral metering of the printed image. The special configuration with printing unit after the coater, referred to as ‘Plus One’, is particularly practical for producing high quality luxury packaging, a sector in which Arca-Box has played a leading role for many years as a supplier to famous brands.
Product diversity
Besides traditional packaging production, the new Rapida is also used for printing on plastic, plus “automatic” packaging, containers, displays, tapes and clipstrips. What seemed impossible yesterday, is now accomplished by the new highly specialised machine in a single step with high efficiency.
Arca-Box’s main aim is to produce packaging products that allow its customers to beat the competition at the point of sale. So Arca-Box invests in advanced techniques and technology. Customers not only obtain high quality packaging, but also all the services related to packaging production, from strategic partnerships and packaging development, graphic design and prototype building to punctual delivery of the finished products.
