Offset Printing
Shorewood takes packaging pole position with colour certification
Wednesday 30. March 2011 - Shorewood Packaging (Ebbw Vale) is the first packaging company in the UK to attain Heidelbergs ISO 12647-2 certification.
The company was motivated to undertake the Print Colour Management programme in order to extend its market, to add wider consumer packaging work whilst retaining its strong presence in carton production for the entertainment industry with X-Box, PS3 games etc.
Its road to certification involved investment in upgrading its press technology, especially a secondhand CD 74 but also an SM 74 (both five-colours with coaters). It has also implemented a more structured maintenance programme and undertaken training in both the theoretical and practical issues of colour with its upgraded Image Control spectrophotometer.
On news that it could provide ISO 12647 standard work it has already secured tests and contracts from retail packaging buyers and it now provides print charts and output data to some of its key customers every six weeks.
“The Print Colour Management project opened our eyes to some shortcomings in our equipment which we have been able to rectify. Now both our SM 74-5+L and our CD 74-5+L are running to the standard and it has given us and our customers the greatest confidence in our colour. This is also important to us as part of a global group handling many leading international brands,” says Geraint Evans, print manager of the Ebbw Vale plant.
The Shorewood upgrades included new rollers and journals; blanket, roller and inks trials; refurbishment of the technotrans reverse osmosis and alcohol dosing systems; and investment in updating Image Control to 5.0 version and the addition of ColorAssistant software.
Steve Fowler, colour specialist at Heidelberg UK, says: “Geraint put a huge amount of work and commitment into the project and always with a positive attitude. He sought our advice, listened, heeded and put the hard work in. They got fabulous results and deserve their certification. It shows that PCM can provide a really good health check on equipment as well as creating workable and reliable processes and controls.”
The achievement of the standard is part of a pan European objective for Shorewood. Andrew Malson, European General Manager, applauded the efforts of Geraint and his team in Ebbw Vale: “Our UK operation has worked tirelessly to achieve this standard, colour control and consistency is a critical area and Shorewood have shown how serious we are at achieving the best control and consistency available. This achievement in the UK leads the way and we are currently working with Heidelberg to undergo certification at Shorewood Poland”.