Aksorn Art Paper Cup and Packaging Company – based in Samutsakorn, Thailand – has recently purchased an Edale press in order to enter the flexo market. The company currently has four offset presses, but a significant increase in demand necessitated a flexo press that can accommodate such high volume. Aksom purchased an eight color Edale combination UV/IR Carton line with a wide range of additional options for its newly renovated factory. The company is a supplier of paper cups for hot and cold food and drink products, both single and double walls.

Joe Wongvorakul, managing director, says, “We decided on the 8 color Edale FL-5 Carton as it can drastically reduce time;  the biggest problem we were finding with offset were the bottlenecks – this will be eradicated with the FL-5 Carton, and allow us to become more efficient in both cost – and time, and enable us to meet customer order demands quicker.”

The relationship between the companies began at Label Expo Europe in 2011, where Joe Wongvorakul met with Edale’s Thai agent Edale Asia Pacific (this division, formerly Rotary Technology Partnership) to learn more about Edale’s product offering, and they remained in regular contact with Edale trialling some of Aksorn’s jobs on one of their existing customer’s machine to see the outcome.

Joe Wongvorakul says, “I have great confidence in the management team and the strong distribution network, which played a big factor in why we chose to work with Edale, as well as the top quality R&D and manufacturing teams. I look forward to continuing to work together to ensure that the machine remains as futureproof as possible in the upcoming years”.

According to the company, the Edale FL-5 Carton can print up to 600 micron cartonboard and guarantee a high speed. The FL-5 Carton also consists of a high specification Martin Automatic continuous unwind, combination IR/UV, shingled delivery table and a range of additional options. As standard, the machine has servo drives on each print head providing pre-register, auto-register and print length control features. This, combined with the revolutionary print head designs, ensures job change times and set up wastage are kept to a minimum with the ability to perform a full station colour change in under 70 seconds.

“The sale of the press for the production of high quality carton board food samples into Thailand, and in particular a predominantly offset company, really puts Edale on the map and highlights the latest flexo technology available, eliminating the need for outsourcing, shortened cycle time, and enhanced quality levels,” says James Boughton, Edale’s Managing Director.

Once the deal was signed and the machine had been built, the team at Aksorn flew over to the UK alongside Edale’s agents Edale Asia Pacific to participate in a week’s training to familiarise themselves with the machine, the company will also receive an additional 10 days training on site upon installation into their factory.

Tony Law, sales manager of Edale Asia Pacific, adds, “It was a pleasure working with both Edale and Aksorn Art Paper Cup and Packaging. Throughout the project, Edale have provided constant support and service which ensures the customer gets the right solution for their business. The most successful part of this specific project is helping the customer to reduce production time; substrate and other consumable items by switching from offset to flexo. I sincerely wish Aksorn a successful future in flexo printing.”