ROTOCON and EyeC kick-start partnership at Propak Africa

ROTOCON announced its appointment as the exclusive distribution partner of EyeC artwork and print inspection systems in South Africa during the Propak Africa 2022 trade exhibition held in Johannesburg, earlier this month.

EyeC sales director, Ralph Beier, joined the ROTOCON team to meet existing and potential local customers and showcase the ProofRunner Web inline inspection system unit installed on an ECOLINE RSH machine for label inspection, slitting, and rewinding.

‘ROTOCON’s knowledge of the print industry and exemplary coverage of the South African market, coupled with an experienced technical support team, made adding the company to our global distribution partner network an easy decision,’ Ralph remarked.

Internationally, there are over 2 000 EyeC inspection systems in use by pharmaceutical companies, printers and manufacturers of luxury and branded consumer goods. ‘Local technical service and support is critical for these customers and has enabled EyeC to support 20 of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies,’ he noted.

Michael Aengenvoort, ROTOCON group CEO, added: ‘Over the past 20 years, EyeC has built a reputation of providing reliable, high-quality inspection systems to help customers implement rigorous quality control processes and ensure compliance. Its product portfolio – which includes file-to-file comparison for artwork revision control and prepress applications, print-to-file inspection systems for press sample testing, and 100% print quality control – will be of great benefit to South African printers throughout the entire cycle of their production process.’

Ralph explained that the EyeC ProofRunner Web inline inspection system can be installed on a printing press or rewinder/slitter to monitor the quality of the entire print job and check it against the approved artwork PDF. The information contained in the PDF is used to define priority regions, adjust inspection sensitivity automatically and alert the operator in case of defects such as colour deviations, misregisters, press contamination, filled in or missing characters, hickies or poor quality codes.

‘Thanks to its intelligent technology, the EyeC ProofRunner Web only alerts the operator in the case of significant deviations, which helps to reduce potential eye strain and fatigue. The clear presentation of deviations and key statistical information, such as the defect heatmap, helps the operator to understand the location and origin of printing defects easily and then take corrective action to remove the defective items and replace them just before shipment to customers,’ Ralph remarked. ‘The ability to catch defects in real-time allows the operator to correct the problem before too much waste material has been printed. The inspection system also eliminates the need for overruns as it counts the number of good items produced, which prevents the waste of expensive consumables and valuable machine time.’

In addition, the full inspection report automatically produced at the end of each job offers managers a perfect tracking, analysis and communication support document. ‘This validation support also assists print service providers (PSPs) to meet customers’ ISO standard compliance requirements when they get audited because it demonstrates that they have a validatable process in place,’ he pointed out.

Michael added that an EyeC technician will come out from Germany before the end of the month with an additional scanner-based system and set up the tradeshow EyeC ProofRunner Web unit in Rotocon’s Johannesburg showroom to train its technicians on these specific user interface systems. ‘This training won’t take long as our technical team previously worked with AVT inspection systems and there are EyeC inspection systems installed on two ECOLINE RSI label finishing machines at ROTOCONTROL’s demo centre in Siek, Germany, for full press to rewind customer demos,’ he commented. ‘ROTOCON also has an ECOLINE RSI inspection slitter/rewinder machine installed at this centre for customer demos because ROTOCONTROL is our distribution partner in the European market.’

SCREEN wins European label press award

SCREEN’S TRUEPRESS JET L350UV SAI S has won the European Digital Press Association’s (EDP’s) Best Label Printer award for its ease-of-use, improved quality and speed. This is the third label inkjet technology prize awarded to the Japanese digital press manufacturer by the EDP.

SCREEN, represented in sub-Saharan Africa by ROTOCON, previously won EDP awards for its Truepress Jet L350UV+ in 2018 and its L350UV label press in 2014.

‘This prestigious award recognises our commitment to helping label printing customers to continuously enhance efficiencies and productivity, with enhanced reliability through ongoing innovations. This enables them to gain a competitive advantage and be at the forefront of the industry,’ says Taishi Motoshige, marketing director of SCREEN Europe.

Introduced in 2020, the SCREEN Truepress Jet L350UV SAI S builds on the success of the popular PLUS range, as a high-productivity, high-quality and versatile UV inkjet label press. The Japanese word ‘sai’ means ‘colourful’, and the SCREEN SAI series was developed to help print service providers (PSPs) to produce a wider range of spot colours to meet brand owners’ challenging demands. The machine prints on substrate widths of up to 350mm at production speeds of up to 60m/min. SCREEN has sold more than 200 units of its L350 series so far.

Taishi describes the SAI platform as compact and configurable, enabling PSPs to accommodate current and future printing requirements. The Truepress SAI S has a four-colour CMYK device and can easily be upgraded to a seven-colour configuration, including white, orange and a unique blue.

‘The additional colours extend the gamut and reduce the amount of ink needed – the press uses all the ink sets available, even if the job contains just CMYK data, offering large ink savings,’ he explains.

According to ROTOCON’s group CEO Michael Aengenvoort, the team is proud to celebrate this success and share the news with the local market. ‘We’re proud of SCREEN’s achievement and its confidence in us to represent the company in sub-Saharan Africa. This is also great news for the local market as more and more companies are looking to enter the digital press market; this provides them with the assurance that it’s the best option on the market,’ he concludes.

ROTOCON supports developmental care

ROTOCON recently donated R100 000 to the Alta du Toit Aftercare Centre, which focuses on the well-being and development of adults with intellectual disabilities.

The inspiration for donating to the centre came from director John Lomberg, who explains that the team wanted to express its thanks for everything the centre has done for the Western Cape community during the past 44 years. ‘The centre relies on donations to provide an even better experience for the people under its care, and ROTOCON is fortunate to be able to provide this donation,’ John reports.

According to manager Anna-Louise Olivier, there are currently over 200 people in the centre’s care – 120 are permanent residents. ‘One of the four residences is dedicated to the elderly, and this donation will provide funds for their specialised care and development.’

It will also enable the centre to reach out to other communities, especially in previously disadvantaged areas, which might not be able to afford the care. ‘Some families are able to pay a monthly fee, but there are many who can’t. The centre is thankful to ROTOCON for providing us with relief-enabling measures via this meaningful donation,’ Anna-Louise adds.

ROTOCON group CEO, Michael Aengenvoort, explains that the company values its ability to help bring people together and give back to the community. ‘We don’t want to be perceived as a company that only focuses on business. Its success is an important enabler for us and puts us in the fortunate position to give back to organisations making a meaningful difference in our communities.’