KZK, a label converter in the Czech Republic, has installed a Mark Andy P5E Performance Series press at its facility in Brno. The purchase and installation were managed by Radim Krutis of Enginne, the Mark Andy distributor for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and the new P5E joins three legacy Mark Andy presses at the plant. The company, which was established in 1995, is owned and managed by Bronislav Kuda and now employs 45 people in a factory that was specially extended in 2018 to house the new P5E.

“The older presses still print good quality, but we needed to invest in up to date technology that would allow us to add value,” says Kuda. Following print trial visits to manufacturers in Switzerland and Denmark, it was a demonstration at the Mark Andy showroom in Warsaw, Poland that convinced him a P5E was the right machine. “Our printers immediately felt comfortable with it and were able to run high-quality at high speed in no time at all. They said it was easy to operate and quick to change over between jobs,” he adds, highlighting the open ink tray and cylinder arrangement of the press.

With existing 6-color capability, KZK elected to specify the new P5E as an 8-color press. It has a 13” (330mm) web width and comes equipped with water-cooled impression cylinders that allow it to run filmic substrates and an overhead rail system that permits movable turn bars and cold foil units to add production flexibility. In addition, the P5E can print on the reverse side and there is a special module for producing peel-off labels. It also has two diecutting stations.

“With customer demand changing so quickly, we saw no point in buying a basic machine. As far as possible we wanted to future-proof our investment,” Kuda says. The P5E is servo driven with each plate cylinder independently powered, and the preregistration system automatically positions them before the press runs. Full job changeovers take less than five minutes. Web tension is finely controlled from the operator’s monitor and automatically adjusted throughout the print run. “High speed, high quality and high productivity – the P5E ticks all the boxes,” he adds.

Installation and commissioning took only one week followed by a week of initial operator training from Mark Andy’s Technical Team, assisted by Enginne. Once the operators and machine had settled, an additional advanced training course was arranged to familiarize KZK with the full added-value capabilities of the P5E. According to Kuda, the new P5E is a world away from running the older legacy machines. The degree of automation and ergonomic design make it easy to run and with only 135cm web path between each unit, the company has seen waste levels fall sharply.

Currently, 95% of KZK’s work is labels, with substrates varying from paper to films like PE, PVC and PE. Platemaking is outsourced at local specialists DMF in Brno, and the plates are then mounted in-house using cameras for the accuracy required to produce top quality work. The company’s customer portfolio spans the food, chemical, automotive, brewing and wine growing industries, with a wide variety of job lengths from a few thousand meters to jobs that take several days to run-off. For short-run jobs of 1,000-2,000 meters, KZK has both dry toner and inkjet print capacity in-house. Other offline finishing techniques include screen printing, hot foil stamping and inspection/rewinding.

“The P5E is well designed and solidly engineered,” says Kuda. “Our operators love it, and it has added a new dimension to our production capability. And, the service and support from both Enginne locally, and Mark Andy in Warsaw, has been excellent.”