UK-based Ultragraph of Omskirk has confirmed the purchase of a Promatrix 106 CSB (cutting, stripping, blanking) die-cutter following a recent visit to the Heidelberg factory in Germany. A Bograma rotary die-cutter and a Heidelberg cylinder are being replaced.
The company started a move into packaging about seven years ago but it has expanded rapidly in the last 18 months and it plans to grow this side of the business further. E-Liquid packaging products account for about 40% of its packaging work but it also handles cartons and packaging for automotive, household products, non-contact food, telecoms and banking.
“The Bograma took us in to professional packaging but we have been limited by the thickness of material we could cut (500 microns) and taking heavier stocks to the cylinder was old fashioned and involved lots of guillotining and hand stripping,” says Nick Jones, Managing Director. “Now we will have cutting, stripping and blanking in one pass for a much wider range of stocks and with a higher output. The Promatrix will at least double our die-cutting capacity and eliminate a proportion of the expensive tooling costs associated with rotary die-cutting.”
This investment opens up the opportunity for the company to move from B2 to B1 production in the future. Currently the company operates a Speedmaster XL 75-10-P. The company is on track to achieve its ISO 9001 quality and ISO 14001 environmental certification and this will be followed by the BRC standard to allow it to handle more food work.
