One of the most modern corrugated board printing plants in Europe is located in St. Ruprecht in the Austrian province of Styria. Photo call at the official inauguration (left to right): Robert Posch, technical manager at the St. Ruprecht plant; Udo Nachbaur, head of technology for Ganahl AG; Hubert Marte, CEO of Ganahl AG; Reinhard Marschall, managing director of Koenig & Bauer DACH; and Otto Schweinzer, managing director of the Rondo plant in St. Ruprecht. © Alexandra Luttenberger / com_unit

New high-tech print centre opened in Austria

Rondo Ganahl AG has invested 36 million euros in its St. Ruprecht site in the Austrian province of Styria,culminating in the inauguration of one of the most modern print centres for corrugated packaging in Europe. The centrepiece in the production hall is a new six-colour Rapida 164 sheetfed offset press with inline coater and extended delivery.

The new Rapida 164 handles sheets up to a maximum format of 1,205 × 1,640 mm at speeds of up to 16,000 sheets/hr. In other words, an area equivalent to four football pitches can be printed in just an hour. The press incorporates a microflute accessory package for the processing of corrugated board up to a thickness of 1.7 mm. To enable uninterrupted, high-speed production with heavy and rigid substrates, it has also been placed on a foundation raised by one metre and integrated into a fully automatic pile logistics system. This has given the new print centre in St. Ruprecht the capacity for an additional 20 million square metres of corrugated board per year.

Unique press installation

The press is in many ways as unique as the products it prints and has been tailored to Rondo’s precise requirements – from installation with a special gallery and integrated plate trolley lift to a water-cooling system, as well as underfloor logistics for palletless pile transport.

The Rapida 164 also boasts numerous automation solutions: PlateStretch to compensate paper stretching at the press of a button from the ErgoTronic console, the sidelay-free infeed DriveTronic SIS, FAPC plate changers and CleanTronic washing systems. Inking unit temperature control ensures constant printing conditions irrespective of the run length, production speed or hall temperature. Special ink ducts simplify the use of UV and other special inks.

Multi-talent corrugated board

Corrugated board is a veritable multi-talent among packaging solutions: light, robust and versatile – and, what’s more, sustainable by nature. This is why corrugated board is more and more frequently the packaging material of choice for the food industry and many other brand owners.

Ganahl AG CEO Hubert Marte: “We specialise in producing recyclable packaging out of corrugated board. Here in St. Ruprecht alone, we have more than 10,000 items that could replace plastic. Each of these items is like a bespoke tailored jacket for the product concerned.” Otto Schweinzer, managing director of the St. Ruprecht corrugated board plant, adds: “Through the use of food-safe inks, we can produce corrugated board packaging that offers a genuine alternative to plastic.”

Ecological production in St. Ruprecht

The corrugated board plant in St. Ruprecht uses solar energy to power its production facilities. Some 2,000 photovoltaic modules have been installed on the hall roofs. They enable Rondo to produce around 2.5 million kilowatt-hours of clean energy per year and permit annual CO2 savings of 980 tonnes.

Family business steeped in tradition

The roots of the Rondo Ganahl family business can be traced back to 1797. The company entered the paper business with the founding of Vorarlberger Papierfabrik in 1911. The first corrugated board plant was opened in Frastanz in 1954, and was later joined by a second plant in St. Ruprecht in 1972. Alongside a new digital print centre and the main production plant, the Styrian operations of Rondo Ganahl AG also include MC-Box Austria and an assembly centre in Albersdorf. Further plants are located in Hungary, Romania, Turkey and Germany.