Despite recent reports of a general slow-down in the growth of the UK economy, the food service sector and certain food retailers are bucking the trend with steady growth – and box plants and converters can make the most of this trend by ensuring their own production lines are operating to maximum efficiency. 

As corrugated plants consider their investments for this year - especially approaching the new tax year and, for many companies, a new financial year from April 2016 - SUN Automation Group^® urges plants to maximise their return on investment. According to Rob Dal Lago, SUN Automation’s General Manager EMEA, a relatively small investment in retrofitting state of the art technology such as MicroGrind^®  or AccuPrint^®  to existing plant, combined with targeting growth food sectors, could reap significant dividends.

Rob Dal Lago explained: “Recent reports show that the UK’s food service sector, which includes food to go, is enjoying a resurgence equating to three per cent growth during 2015*. Given the even more impressive growth of discount retailers last year, it’s clear that there are major opportunities for plants to increase their bottom line by targeting food sectors – as long as they can offer market leading standards of production coupled with reduced waste.”

SUN Automation is a recognised leader in the global corrugated sector. The company has a doubly attractive offering, enabling plants to improve both their production efficiency and sustainability. The MicroGrind® die cut accuracy system provides a big advantage for box plants that need accurate and consistent crease, score, and perforation in order to facilitate fault free auto-fill and shelf presentation in corrugated packaging. Meanwhile, compared to conventional flexographic printing systems, AccuPrint can achieve up to 85% savings on recovered ink prior to colour changeover, alongside a 50% reduction in set-up time.

Rob Dal Lago added: “With the ongoing uncertainty in global markets, it is understandable that converters are reticent to take the plunge into the evolving world of highly-sophisticated digital print solutions. However, there are home-grown opportunities in the UK food sector and SUN Automation is ideally positioned to guide customers through the next few years, helping them to enhance production with careful investment in tailored products that will meet customer demands in food and other sectors too.”

MicroGrind is available as an upgrade for existing machines, as well as for almost all new machine models in the market including top anvil machines. Ituses a tungsten carbide roll to grind the anvil flat and true, allowing the surface to be treated in micro amounts automatically with precision, without operator intervention. By utilising a full-width grinding roll engaged systematically against the entire anvil surface, and then adjusting the anvil speed, box makers can significantly advance the quality and productivity of their rotary die cutting machines.

Consistently smooth anvil covers which perform ‘as new’ during their entire life assure clean cuts and perforations, thus appreciably easing scrap issues. Rejections and returned boxes are significantly reduced as breaker and packing machines are able to run smoother at higher speeds with minimal jams. 

Complimenting the benefits of Microgrind, AccuPrint reduces the water required for wash-up by up to 50 per cent, bringing multiple benefits of lower utility bills, reduced waste and saving resources. In addition, downtime is reduced through clever design features such as tool-less blade and end seal change, resulting in quicker and easier maintenance. The system is able to be adapted to virtually every type of OEM machine and demonstrates significant improvements for users of two-roll systems in particular.

SUN Automation, which has 30 years’ experience in retrofitting innovative technologies to transform corrugated equipment, provides box plants worldwide with technologies that assist with increasing production quality, efficiency and profitability. With an unequalled portfolio of solutions SUN Automation is in the ideal position to guide box plants towards the most appropriate equipment for their needs, whether for conventional flexographic or the fast approaching digital arena.