A Spanish gravure printer Eurohueco, a Walstead company, decided to improve the efficiency of their four gravure printing presses by investing into Procemex web monitoring and inspection technology in the beginning of the year. The installation took place in April 2017.

Improving efficiency by understanding the root causes of web breaks

“We have a need to analyze web breaks in the press, since it takes too much valuable time to stop machine without knowing the reason of the break,” began Mr. Javier Ortega Gálvez, Production Manager of Eurohueco. “I knew Procemex already from my previous experience; I knew the benefits of the system. And also our sister company, Rotocobrhi in Madrid, has Procemex systems.”

“We may have an idea what causes the breaks, but only with the camera system we know the exact root causes, we definitely need the data out of the Procemex system.”

“Based on my previous experience, I know that it is very difficult to know, is the basic reason for a break in the paper itself or in the press or somewhere else. But with Procemex system, we can identify the root cause exactly,” Mr. Ortega explains.

More Volume, More Productivity

“We were very keen on having the system installed as soon as possible, and pre-engineering jobs started quickly, and the installation took place in April,” says Mr. Ortega.

Mr. Ortega continues: “Our target is to reduce web breaks at least 15 % per machine in a year in a short view. Our printers make very long runs up to 11 million copies; we cannot afford to have too much and too long breaks. Paper breaks take approx. 31 % of the downtimes. Therefore the web monitoring system has a big impact on our productivity and runnability.”

“Procemex solution is not cheap, but the payback time is very short for a Procemex system - this is a very important investment. Nowadays, in printing industry you need to be very careful with your investments, you really need to know where to invest in,” confirms Mr. Javier Ortega.