Stratus Packaging Group is one of the European leaders in the manufacture of printed labels, sleeves and in-mold labels. With 300 employees working in five production plants in France and a sales office in Switzerland, the company prides itself on its quality of service and the relationships it establishes with its customers. As such, Stratus Packaging is always on the lookout for technology that will provide its customers with a competitive edge. When it saw the solutions offered by BOBST and its REVO partners, Stratus Packaging felt it had found a source of innovation.

The “DigiFlexo” innovation, first brought to the market by BOBST at drupa 2016, promotes the digitalization of packaging production by providing consistent color matching and control, process repeatability and consistency, with very quick job changes and minimum waste.

Progress in productivity
“Before, it was taking a lot of time to change the plates and clean the ink tanks between each job printed with different pantones,” explains Julien Chauveau, R&D Manager at Stratus Packaging. “It was costing us, and therefore our customers, time and money that we were keen to save.”

The solution came in the shape of a BOBST M5 UV flexo machine, which with the help of REVO innovation, transforms flexo printing and die-cutting into a digital process. Through a digital work flow, with integrated printing and converting technologies, the machine only generates 20 meters of waste and requires only one minute for each job change, providing the highest quality consistency at the lowest operating costs. The machine is equipped with Excellence™ for automated exchange of flexo print cylinders.

“We already had an advanced workflow, which made the DigiFlexo solution a natural fit,” says Chauveau, “But now we have taken it to the next level. With only around 15 meters to automatically register up to eight colors between two jobs printed with REVO technology, we now have control and consistency at our fingertips at a very high production speed,” he says.

REVO and color consistency
REVO stands for Digital Flexo REVOlution. BOBST established the REVO partnership, consisting of Apex International, AVT, BOBST, DuPont, ESKO, Flint Group, Saica Flex, Stora Enso, UPM Raflatac and X-Rite Pantone, to optimize the digitalization of the complete production process.

One of its biggest successes has been around color consistency, which has been one of the main concerns of brand owners. Some substrates are more absorbent, which can affect how the color of the substrate itself interacts with the ink and affects the color. What’s more, different printing processes all using different types of inks and colorants.

The REVO 7-color Extended Color Gamut (ECG) is now a well-established turn-key DigiFlexo process that flows from pre-press through to production output. ECG printing uses three additional ink colors – orange, green and violet (OGV) – on top of the conventional colors of cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK), enabling a match with 90%+ of the Pantone book, compared with approximately 60% previously. This means there is no need to keep huge inventories of spot colors, but these can be added if required.

The benefits for Stratus Packaging are significant.

“The machine allows us to print in multichromy in UV flexo,” says Chauveau. “This leads to reductions in ink costs. In addition, eliminating color matching reduces set-up times significantly. Overall with the REVO technology, we are able to optimize our production, with less change time for colors, less cleaning operation needed and fewer flexo plate changes. Consequently, we are able to optimize the cost to produce labels for our customers. By adjusting our printing processes, we have been able to open up new avenues for our company.”

In a nutshell, the REVO DigiFlexo has transformed the way Status Packaging is managing its labels production. The technology benefits are significant, and they answer the brand owners’ requirements well. The changing demographics and customer behaviors are here to stay and adjusting its production capabilities is a must to remain competitive.  “BOBST offers leading innovations and we are glad to have deployed them,” summarizes Chauveau