EDALE LAUNCHES NEW FLEXO VS LITHO CARTON CONFIGURATOR CALCULATOR

Article written by Nick Coombes, for Brunton Business Publications Ltd and featured in Folding Carton Magazine.

Edale were seeking a deeper understanding of the differences between flexo and sheetfed litho carton production and wanted to explore the market sectors where integrated single-pass flexo provides significant advantages. Their vision was to build a simple, user-friendly online tool to allow converters to see how the press can boost productivity, increase profitability and save money.

James Boughton, Managing Director, Edale, comments, “Earlier this year, we partnered with Sean Smyth of Smithers who we have worked with before. We wanted an unbiased approach to show printers worldwide the key cost and benefit differences between Flexo vs Litho. We wanted to develop a detailed cost model that compares the real production costs of the Edale FL5 pressline, with flatbed die-cutter against a sheetfed litho machine with separate foiling, cast and cure, lamination and cutting and creasing processes to produce carton blanks for a folder gluer.”

Boughton continues, “It’s all very well for us pitching the FL5 as the alternative to offset and talking about the benefits of flexo, but as you would expect, printers want to know ‘real world’ costs and how this compares to the traditional offset printing.

“We were pleased with the simplicity, quality and consistency that Edale flexo gives us. Image quality can be better than litho on low quality boards.”
ESTONIA-BASED FL5 CUSTOMER

“We know there are calculators out there, albeit difficult to find and frankly complex and disappointing, as you don’t get to see the output after inputting a load of information and then ‘in comes to the sales pitch’.”

Smithers has developed a version for Edale, aimed to cover the capital cost of a press (with finance charges), direct labour, power, service and maintenance over the shift pattern in use to determine an hourly rate. Calculations include the typical set-up time and waste, plate costs, inks and any consumables, press uptime and running speed with waste are input, together with the product details and substrate, to determine the costs and time of production.

“We are excited about sharing our cost comparator and anticipate a lot of interest from the market,” adds Boughton. “We welcome discussion and are keen to share the calculator with business owners in person or virtually so that they can see the outcome across a range of comparative production and operation costs for different print processes, showing how these change across a range of run lengths. Let them see for themselves using their own real-life calculations.”

Our printing is an art and we want to help our customers stand out and grow. If there is no challenge printing can be a boring job. We will retire our sheetfed press after the second FL5 is installed and solely focus on flexo printing.”
INDIA-BASED FL5 CUSTOMER

Real Life

As part of their plan to support the calculator, Edale has developed a customer Case Study to demonstrate the advantages of flexo carton production over litho to customers and prospects. Smithers conducted all customer interviews to ensure impartiality. Several users of Edale presses were interviewed in-depth to understand the business opportunities that flexo provides for carton manufacture,  covering the experiences and advantages of their processes. Flexo vs Litho Print Calculation Tool.

Flexo vs Litho Print Calculation Tool

The calculator is available now by contacting Edale directly; however, it will be available soon on the company’s website and open to all.  The idea is that printers will select their carton size from the option provided, input the number of colours front and reverse, and select if they varnish, laminate, foil, cast & cure and emboss. It’s straightforward, quick, and easy to complete.

You will see direct results based on your input/carton size and other criteria so that you can have a ‘play’ with the calculator. This is the simplified version, and we have a complex calculator that will enable customers/prospects to input a much greater level of detail relevant to their business operation.

The calculator features a simple graph and shows the Crossover Point with litho.
This example gives an indication, however is not a quoting tool for carton cost.  It is an example only.

The calculator can be used to compare the total cost of manufacture, including finishing and embellishment for carton blanks that are ready to be folded and glued. In practice the relative costs change with many factors beyond the capability of the print equipment.

Sean Smyth, Smithers, comments, “Shift patterns impact the hourly rate of a press, while the culture of a print provider will determine set-up time and waste, and running speed. Some companies may not have a process such as foiling or lamination in-house, needing to use an outwork supplier that will add time and delivery costs to a job. The number of times the flexo plates will be re-used will impact the unit cost, the same is true for cut and creasing dies which will impact all print processes.

“The actual economic cut-off between any print technology depends on how the printing company uses it and there are huge variations in cost for the same press in various locations. “The model allows the costs and performance to be varied to ensure it is a realistic representation. Real ‘street’ costs of labour, power, plates and ink can be applied, with the actual operating conditions at a plant being input.  The model can also be used to determine the potential annual capacity of a proposed investment, with the fixed and variable costs helping to help with a risk assessment of a business plan.

Many equipment manufacturers use cost models to demonstrate the advantages of a particular technology for the market sector of their prospect. These can be plotted to show how the costs change with runtime, and the elapsed time of production with finishing.”

Boughton concludes, “It is important for us is to have customers we know also to talk openly about the benefits, challenges and how costs compare with litho, and Smithers interviewed some of our customers, resulting in some interesting results. We would encourage printers to find out more and they can easily request a run-through of the full calculator mode. The Edale ‘White Paper’ is a must-read also and it includes three companies using the single pass Edale FL5.”

“In-line flexo production give us a lower carbon footprint than offset. The Edale press also saves about half the level of waste that we get using offset.”
US-BASED FL5 CUSTOMER

 

To find out more visit www.edale.com

Sean Smyth of Smithers