Woodstock, Ga. – Lithec, a global leader of inline color control and inspection systems for the packaging industry, announces the installation of LithoFlash at Huber Packaging Group. Huber Packaging Group, based in Öhringen, Germany, is a leading German manufacturer of metal and plastic packaging with operations in Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary. In the spring of 2021, Huber Packaging Group become part of the Envases Group, a global leader in consumer packaging and is now part of Envases Europe A/S, based in Denmark. On April 1, 2021, Huber Packaging Group changed their name to Envases Öhringen and became part of the Packaging Division.

Lithec made the first retrofit worldwide on a Manroland metal decorating press at Huber Group in Germany in 2020. Manroland, recognized as one of the world’s largest press manufacturers, has been producing metal printing units for more than 20 years. Retrofitting the Manroland press with LithoFlash enables on the fly color correction while printing on a metal substrate. While Lithec systems have been installed in more than 1,500 printing plants around the world, including many metal print facilities, this is the first installation of a LithoFlash on a metal decorating press. The Öhringen plant has three printing presses, among them a four-color and a six-color Manroland.

“We were facing increasing demands for consistent print quality,” states Jochen Massa, Envases Öhringen, Area Print Manager. “The LithoFlash system allows us to have an on-press color inspection solution that gives us full control of the color process without having to stop the press. The results have been consistent color quality across the full run.”

“Since this had not been done anywhere else in the world, we decided to do a 12-week beta test with LithoFlash on our six-color Manroland press,” continues Massa. “We knew the reputation of Lithec as a manufacturer of color control systems on presses in the commercial print world, printing on paper substrates. In principle, the same technology should apply to a metal decoration press. The test met all of our objectives, so a second system was ordered immediately and was commissioned in February 2021.”

“We are thrilled with the success of LithoFlash in the first metal decoration presses in Europe,” states Clyde Tillman, President, Lithec USA. “The demands of brand owners for consistent printed color are the same regardless of the substrate that a brand is printed on. We are eager to bring this technology to the metal decoration market here in North America.”

For more information, visit https://lithecusa.com.