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SCA Gemerská Hôrka, one of Slovakia’s largest manufacturers of female hygiene products, is reporting a ‘step change’ in quality, safety and process efficiency improvements, after installing four-colour TRESU flexo printing units featuring F10 iCon automated ink supply systems on several of its converting lines. 

Replacing offline single printing units with an ‘open’ ink supply and chamber, the new TRESU printing units integrate into the production lines, enabling SCA to manufacture its products and apply brand identification graphics, in a single pass for the first time. 

Featuring two printing chambers, the printing units handle non-woven liner products between 85mm and 300mm wide, using water-based inks. The TRESU printing units with F10 iCon supply system were chosen for their robust design and high levels of automation that ensure better output, predictable quality and reduced waste.

TRESU’s F10 iCon ink supply system regulates ink flow, pressure and viscosity from the container, through the chamber, to the press in a fully enclosed environment, maintaining constant, pre-set ink density values for complete production runs. Furthermore, the F10 iCon performs fast and thorough chamber-cleaning automatically, returning almost all unused contents for reuse. Simultaneous ink change cycles on printing stations take minutes, delivering significant time and materials savings per job. The units at the Gemerská Hôrka factory also feature TRESU’s chamber doctor blades with rubber seals and clamping systems for blade exchanges within two minutes. 

Peter Kelemen, technology area engineer from SCA Gemerská Hôrka comments: “The existing ink supply system in previous systems was based on an open ink chamber and manual viscosity measurement. This created a challenge when we needed to change inks and chambers, as the cleaning process was slow and there was risk of contamination.

We therefore sought an ergonomic solution that provided effective branding in multiple colours as well as reduced waste. The installation of TRESU’s printing integration unit featuring the F10 iCon provides a step change in performance, bringing predictable quality without manual input, with reduced logistics, faster changeover times and a clean, safe, emission-free working environment.”  ¨

TRESU’s mechanical and electrical engineering team managed the installations together with training sessions for SCA operators over a six-month period. Kelemen concluded: “SCA has benefited from the structured and highly professional project management from TRESU that has enabled a swift and smooth installation. This has been a very successful project for both companies and an excellent base for further future collaboration.”