Koenig & Bauer helps Tlačiareň Bardejov expand ops

Folding carton production using Rapida 76 and Omega Allpro 90

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Tlačiareň
Owner Karol Dvorčák

The Slovakian print company Tlačiareň Bardejov was founded 25 years ago. It started out – like so many other print companies – as a small private business. Over the years, it has grown to become a mid-size packaging specialist with in-house operations catering to all phases of the production process. 

Tlačiareň Bardejov, by investing in a five-color Rapida 76 with inline coater, together with an Omega Allpro 90 folder-gluer from Koenig & Bauer, has boosted its production capacities in preparation for new and future market demands.

Production is primarily on solid and corrugated board substrates. All the presses in use were purchased in recent years in order to stay abreast of the growing challenges in terms of quality, delivery times and packaging design. Tlačiareň Bardejov says it is committed to providing high-quality services and product finishing options, including both striking coating effects and complex cut-outs.

The company now has two sheetfed offset presses, including the Rapida 76, a CtP platesetter, an Omega Allpro 90 line for carton folding and gluing, automatic die-cutters and embossing presses, hot-stamping, laminating and gluing machines, and a whole host of other equipment for packaging production.

Perfect for printing on board

The highly automated Rapida 76 in B2 half format was configured specifically for the product portfolio of Tlačiareň Bardejov. It prints board up to a thickness of 0.8 mm and has allowed the company to expand into the production of packaging for wines and spirits, as well as for e-commerce. The fifth printing unit permits the incorporation of spot colors (Pantone, HKS, metallic inks). This ensures most products can be printed and finished in a single pass, which reduces production costs significantly.

When it comes to finishing, the Rapida 76 shines in the truest sense of the word. The integrated high-flow coater unit handles straightforward inline dispersion coatings and in combination with the last printing unit special multiple finishes as well. The latter option is used to produce matt-gloss refinements and add other visual effects to substrates. The Rapida 76 is equipped with IR and hot-air drying in its extended delivery. This provides for reliable drying even at high production speeds, enabling fast further processing of the printed sheets and correspondingly shorter throughput times for the individual jobs.

Folding and gluing

Another key element of Tlačiareň Bardejov’s innovation and investment plan was the purchase of an Omega Allpro 90. This folder-gluer maximizes production potential – encompassing four- and six-corner cartons, for example, which are two gluing variants that are otherwise difficult to find in Slovakia. 

Tlačiareň
The Omega Allpro 90 scores with high production speeds and exceptional variability

Compared to its previous set-up, the company has increased its production capacities for straight-line, crash-lock and double-wall cartons up to fourfold. The LogoTronic system assists Tlačiareň Bardejov with production planning and control, both on the Rapida 76 and on the Allpro 90. Owner Karol Dvorčák: “We recognized it is currently essential to identify production reserves and to utilize savings potential. That is why we decided to network our production with production planning software.” LogoTronic provides support with planning and control, and supplies reliable data for retrospective evaluation, for example for product costing.

Domestic and international customers

Tlačiareň Bardejov is based in Bardejov, a location that enables it to supply folding cartons and other print products to customers both all over Slovakia and its neighboring countries. Numerous jobs are handled for customers from Poland, and in particular from Kraków. Further long-standing business partners are to be found in Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Belgium.

The packaging market has undergone a dynamic development and change over the past few years. Many manufacturers use their packaging as a marketing tool and instrument for communication with their customers. Tlačiareň Bardejov is profiting from this growth. Even so, packaging production is by no means an easy industry, especially when faced with an energy crisis, increasing prices for raw materials, and strict environment protection regulations. “We are very fortunate in that we have been able to attract many new customers,” says Karol Dvorčák, summing up the nevertheless positive situation for his company.

2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India

Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.

The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry. While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.

The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.

Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.

Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.

Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.

– Naresh Khanna

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