Offset Printing

Thimm Group invests in Romanian site and thus further expands printing competence

Friday 16. April 2021 - Packaging manufacturer Thimm is setting new quality standards with its investment in the Corruflex flexo press at its Sibiu site. The company is thus significantly expanding its capacity for high-quality direct printing of corrugated board in the Eastern European market.

At the same time, customers benefit from faster response times in packaging production.
The Corruflex from German press manufacturer Koenig & Bauer is currently one of the most modern flexo post-print systems. Since the beginning of 2021, it has supplemented the portfolio of the Romanian plant of Thimm pack’n’display with high-quality post-print products. “With the installation of the new machine, we can now also offer high-quality direct corrugated printing to our customers directly in the Central and Eastern European market,” reports Michael Weber, Head of Corporate Strategy + Marketing at the Thimm Group. The demands on the market with regard to print quality in the postprint sector have increased.
Weber continues: “We are setting new quality standards with the installation of the Thimm pack’n’display in Sibiu. The press is the first of its kind in the Eastern European market.” Thanks to the very high register and register accuracy of the press and the use of anilox rollers in the required specification, colour prints up to the 49/50 screen range can be achieved. The new press can also print photos on high-quality paper without any problems. Thanks to integrated dryers in the individual printing units and a high-performance final dryer, it is possible to print not only on uncoated paper but also on high-quality coated paper.
“Should a defect occur in the print image due to production reasons, the defective print sheet is automatically detected, ejected from the press and compensated for in terms of quantity, so that quality and quantity remain at the same level,” Weber explains the press image monitoring of the system. “Another highlight is the rollerless infeed of the corrugated sheets into the machine. This prevents loss of calibration – the sheets are not damaged at any time.”
The machine has a working format of 1.52 x 2.80 m and reaches speeds of up to 10,000 infeeds per hour. The Thimm Group is enthusiastic about the performance. “With this investment we have increased our production capacity many times over. The press offers a capacity of up to 30 million printed square metres per year, which is an increase of 150 per cent compared to our previous press,” Weber continues. The plant employees in Sibiu are also very pleased with the modern machine, he said. “The machine can be set up for a new, second job while the plant is running. This was previously not possible with the existing system without stopping and moving the press apart.”
In order to install the new printing line with a total length of 30 metres, some modifications were necessary in the factory beforehand. In total, the Thimm Group invested a mid-seven-figure sum in the Romanian location. Around 308 people are employed in Sibiu, 222 of whom work in production.