Offset Printing

Metal Printing is High-tech – and a Technology with a Future!

Monday 03. September 2018 - Interview with Ralf Gumbel, Managing Director of Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint GmbH, Stuttgart

The first metal-decorating press was built in 1888 by the Mailänder Company. Mergers over the years firstly with LTG and then with Bauer + Kunzi as well as the takeover by KBA in 2003 have led to today’s Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint GmbH. The company is one of the growth drivers within the Koenig & Bauer Group. Managing Director Ralf Gumbel speaks in an interview about the reasons for its success, the company’s strategic direction and digital printing processes in metal printing.
Mr. Gumbel, would you like to give us a brief run-down on KBA MetalPrint?
Ralf Gumbel: Willingly. I would just like to say beforehand that we have just changed our name to Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint, and are leaving the umbrella brand name of KBA and our parent company behind us. We operate as an independent company within the Koenig & Bauer Group, have a staff of 350, a turnover of around 120 million euro and invest four percent of this in R&D. Our roots go back as far as the 1870s when Mailänder developed the first metal-decorating presses and was the first German company to use – something that is not well known – the offset printing process.
Do you operate autonomously or do you interact within the group?
Ralf Gumbel: It is an important part of the success story of the Koenig & Bauer Group that its subsidiaries address their specific markets independently. This makes us fast and flexible, just like typical medium-sized companies, while the corporate structure of the group is nevertheless still behind us. This enables us to do things in large development projects and in production that would be too much for a SME of our size.
How important is the umbrella brand Koenig & Bauer in your target markets?
Ralf Gumbel: Our customers are incredibly impressed by the technologies and history behind the brand. When we invite customers from the can printing sector to Würzburg, they see the entire spectrum from the foundry through to state-of-the-art digital technology. Our ultra-modern production in Radebeul, where many of our machines are built, is also highly impressive. Our customers like that they can get everything from a single source, right down to the individual coding of packaging with solutions from KBA Metronic. The brand is so strong because customers can buy total solutions for their entire process chain.
Metal printing is a growth driver in the Group. What are the reasons for your success?
Ralf Gumbel: We have optimised our processes and expanded our product range to address new markets. I mentioned the machines for 2-piece drinks cans. Up to now we were only in the 3-piece can market, of which we produced annually more than 70 billion units worldwide. In Europe and USA, drinks cans are usually made up of 2 pieces and decorating them is a real bottleneck in the process chain. Our “CS MetalCan” boosts output thanks to its ten individually driven short-train inking units. In addition, plate and blanket changes are automated for short makeready times. And our synchronised keyless short-train inking unit technology ensures the ultimate in print quality. That makes it interesting for many suppliers…
… and sounds high-tech.
Ralf Gumbel: Absolutely! Our sector hides its light far too much under a bushel. We print with speeds of 17 metres a second, on metal, as well! We can apply the finest of thin layers, often just 1 µm, with maximum precision. Deviations of even 0.1 µm are visible to the naked eye. Metal printing is high-tech – and a technology with a future! As a machine manufacturer for packaging, we see potential for growth worldwide. Our equipment prints, coats and dries drums, food cans of all shapes and sizes as well as drinks cans and the tins for technical products you find in DIY stores, spray cans with aerosols, signs, metal toys and lots more.
What percentage of this is food packaging?
Ralf Gumbel: This sector accounts for a good 70 percent with us. Ten years ago in Europe, 95 percent of all food was packaged; in China only five percent. It is estimated that 1.2 billion tons of food perish every year – depending on the specific foods between 20 and 75 percent. Packaging can change this gigantic waste of resources. Especially fruit and vegetables in tins are fresher than when bought at the local farmer’s market since they are canned within half an hour to four hours after harvesting. Metal is, however, in competition with other materials. It is more expensive but more eco-friendly because its material is worth more and it can be recycled. Three quarters of the aluminium produced in the last 100 years is still in use; and that has nothing to do with the purely German idea of a deposit on cans but rather on its material value.
What kind of future do inkjet processes have in metal decorating?
Ralf Gumbel: Our “MetalDecojet” is the world’s first inkjet system developed especially for the metal packaging market. It makes it easy to individualise can designs as part of marketing campaigns. Imagine sporting events where a picture of the player’s face is printed on cans – or the increasing number of craft breweries. There were only 70 breweries left in the States in the 1970s. Today there are 5,500. They brew craft beers in small amounts and need flexible packaging solutions. Those are the niches we address with digital technology. In view of 400 billion drinks cans worldwide annually, mass customisation is, however, just a sideshow. At 98 percent, analogue printing processes will continue to maintain the leading position. They can print 10,000 sheets an hour – in comparison to 170 in digital printing.
What role do water-based inks play?
Ralf Gumbel: There is no getting away from them in inkjet printing for the food industry. Such inks are tested and approved. Printed sheets are stacked one on top of another – inner surface to outer surface. This contact means we need to eliminate printing inks with harmful substances from the process from the very beginning. It also means we can achieve the necessary coating thicknesses since usually metal sheets are printed which are then deep-drawn into cans, lids or drums. The thicker and more brittle the ink coating, the more likely cracks and flaking occur. UV inks with typical coating thicknesses of 5 µm are unsuitable for this.
Do you follow Print 4.0 concepts?
Ralf Gumbel: Traceability is a big issue in the food industry. Automatic documentation for each product is what we are looking for: which machine applied which inks and coatings to which metal sheets. Then, if illegal substances turn up in a product, you can trace back exactly where it happened in the process chain. That is the most interesting aspect for us – apart from advantages in business, service and maintenance.
Where do you see Koenig & Bauer MetalPrint in 2030?
Ralf Gumbel: We will continue to grow and put a wealth of ideas into practice. We are bubbling over with ideas. And, thanks to the close cooperation with the other companies within the Group, we will be able to implement many of them, far more than some of our competitors. I am sure we will not only be holding onto to our market leader position in 2030, we will be able to expand it further.