Watan Pac Kick Starts Demand for High Graphics.

The print quality from the first Bobst Masterflex-L in Saudi Arabia is driving demand in the region for high graphics packaging.

“Every week, new customers are coming to us to get the high quality graphics we deliver on corrugated packaging,” says Mr. Abdullah Al-Ateeq, Managing Director of Watan Pac, based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. “This is a direct result of our investment in the Bobst Masterflex-L , as well as our investment in the inks, plates, and board we run through it, and in the training of our staff. The packaging we are producing on the Masterflex-L is competing directly with litho-laminated and pre-printed products.”

Having started operations in 1987, Watan Pac is an established force in the Saudi corrugated industry and holds a substantial share of the Saudi Arabian market. As of last year, sales growth in its established markets had left Watan Pac needing extra capacity, while at the same time the company had identified a growing desire among its customers for high quality graphics.  After investigating all the alternatives, the company opted for a Bobst Masterflex-L flexo press and a Bobst SPO 160-Vision die-cutter, as Mr. Al-Ateeq explains.   “More than anything, Watan Pac is about quality, which is why you will see our company motto ‘Right Above All’ everywhere you go in our plant. By investing in the best high graphics equipment available we have confirmed our position of leadership in graphics and diecutting quality. At the same time the machine is very productive because of the way we have approached the process. It is certainly the most productive in our region, and we believe it is possibly the fastest running high graphics press worldwide. This productivity helps us, but it is the quality of the work we are producing on the Masterflex-L that has new customers knocking on our door.”

Mr. Al-Ateeq says that since the Masterflex-L started production at Watan Pac, demand for decorative packaging using high quality flexo print has boomed in Saudi Arabia. “There is a clear cost benefit to the customer of using flexo post-print on corrugated instead of litho-lamination or pre-printing. They get the same quality, but the production process is shorter and easier, meaning lead times are faster as well as the product being cheaper. That’s why these new customers are coming to us and why many of our existing customers are now asking us to trial jobs using high graphics.”

Plant Manager, Mr. Mohamed Al Shafey, believes there are three main reasons why Watan Pac has been so successful in producing high graphics packaging. “First the Masterflex-L itself is excellent. Second we have experienced people to run it, all of who have all been very well trained by Bobst. And thirdly we have made sure that the ink, the plates, and the paper we use are all of the right quality.”

Among the many features of the Masterflex-L which deliver the quality of print that Watan Pac require are its vacuum transport system with drive rollers throughout the machine; its independent drives  allowing the correction of print length ; and its motorized correction of bias. A high speed belt feed allows the correction of the sheet edge position to ensure the first color is correctly positioned.

Maintaining the integrity of the board to be printed on is important to quality and the feeder system on the Masterflex-L does not utilize a two roller system like other presses. This means that that the board does not undergo crushing as it is fed. Alongside quality, cost reduction and reducing waste are important factors for any corrugated packaging maker and on the Masterflex-L an inking system with peristaltic pumps and an entirely automatic wash-up brings very significant savings in both ink and water. The machine has been fitted with Duo-Technik hot air driers and a Duo-Technik electro-static sheet cleaning system.

The Masterflex-L also benefits from having built-in Bobst Registron® QA systems which ensure its quality of print. Registron® not only compares each sheet with a stored reference copy and ejects any that are non-conforming, but also looks for trends in print changes. When a trend is spotted by the system, Registron® automatically adjusts the Masterflex-L’s print parameters so that the print on the sheet matches the reference, before even the human eye can detect any difference.

With 6 print units on the 2.1 meter wide Masterflex, Mr. Al Shafey says that Watan Pac can run both high graphics and regular two, three, or four color work.  “For high graphics jobs we run four or five colors and maybe a varnish. For regular jobs we can run a two or three color job while the operator is making ready another two or three color job. This is because he can go inside the machine while it is running and set the plates, etc.”

Mr. Al Shafey was surprised to find that the company’s high graphics work could be run consistently at the maximum, 8,000 sheets per hour, speed of the Masterflex-L . “Our understanding from other people in the industry was that four to five thousand an hour was normal for high graphics on any machine. For a while we ran at five thousand because this was what we expected. Then we increased the speed to six thousand and the quality was still there. Then we increased it to seven thousand, and then eight thousand, and the quality was just as good, so now we run at 8,000 all the time. “

Alongside the quality of print and high performance of the Masterflex-L, Mr. Al Shafey also finds its ease of operation a benefit. “It is easy to control everything using the Matic system, it can store up to 5,000 jobs, and changing the anilox rolls is quick and easy also.”

Mr. Al Shafey has been very impressed by the training provided by Bobst for the operators who run the Masterflex-L.  “The Bobst instructors delivered very good training. We had three periods of training and it included theory as well as practical training. Our people are very team focused and they all wanted to make sure the machine was a success for us.”

Naoufel Ghezal, Bobst Group’s Business Manager for Corrugated Board in Africa and the Middle East, says that while the Masterflex-L is the essential tool to achieve high graphics quality at high speed, technical support and the services to the machine have to be considered too. “What Mr. Al Shafey and his team have done is to look at the whole process. By installing the Masterflex-L they have the machine that can produce the high graphics quality they wanted. Then they chose operators who were already familiar with flexo printing and they allowed us to give them the training we recommend. Watan Pac then worked with their suppliers to chose the correct  inks, papers, plates, and anilox rolls to exploit the  machine’ abilities.”

Post-installation backup was also very important to Watan Pac and, with no previous experience of Bobst equipment, they carried out research among the industry. “We have contacts with several companies outside Saudi Arabia who have Bobst machines, and we heard the support was good, but Bobst has exceeded our expectations. The technical support over the phone is very good and if we need a technician they will often arrive the very next day because they are based in Dubai. Spare parts and consumable parts arrive quickly, but the machine is very reliable and light on maintenance anyway.”

Off-line from the Masterflex-L , Watan Pac have installed a Bobst SPO 160-Vision to ensure that the accuracy of diecutting at the plant matches the print quality of the press. “It’s accuracy of diecutting is very high, which you must have for high quality packaging,” says Mr. Al Shafey. “Also this machine is very easy to operate. The operators learnt how to use it in a very short time and they can set up very quickly compared to other machines.” Running at speeds of up to 4,500 sheets per hour, the SPO 160-Vision can diecut and strip corrugated board that is up to 7mm (0.275”) thick as well as microflute corrugated. With a maximum sheet size of 1600mm x 1100mm (63” x 43 1⁄4”) the machine can bring 300 tonnes (330 US tons) to bear as needed. With Bobst’s Centerline® system as standard, job changeover can be achieved in less than 10 minutes, and Watan Pac have opted to add a chase changer for on-machine preparation of the next job while the previous job runs. With 250 employees at the 23,000 square meter plant in Riyadh, Watan Pac services a wide range of markets throughout the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Trays, and RSC’s are produced for the drinks and sweets industries, with diecut packaging being manufactured for the food, beverage, and electrical appliance markets. Sales is serviced from three offices, one at the plant in Riyadh, one in Jeddah on the Red Sea coast, and one at Dammam on the Arabian Gulf. With customer satisfaction being a key part of the Watan Pac philosophy, Mr. Al-Ateeq says that ensuring quality of product and delivery times brings customers back to Watan Pac time and again. “Whatever product we produce for them, from trays and RSC’s to high graphics packaging, they know they are going to get the quality they need. We have held ISO9002 since 1997, so we have the systems in place to ensure quality, and we have people who work together to ensure the customer gets what they want.  Now with the Bobst Masterflex-L and the SPO 160-Vision we are extending the range of products we can give our customers, so that they can keep ahead in their markets like we do in ours.” July 2010

Caesar Pac – Small Inside, Big Outside.

Kuwait’s Caesar Pac has grown fast over the past nine years, despite having to squeeze a full sized corrugator and seven converting lines into a space no bigger than the average supermarket. Now, with two new plants planned, and extra Bobst equipment already on its way, the company says it is perfectly placed to continue its phenomenal growth.

 While Caesar Pac’s location in Kuwait’s Free Trade Zone is commercially advantageous, the lack of available land for expansion has made every meter of space precious. Currently, the plant’s seven converting machines run very close to its 2.2 meter corrugator, with little space for work in progress between them.

“We have just over three thousand square meters here, and this is the biggest problem for our production,” says Tamar Hozayen, General Manager of Caesar Pac. “There is only three or four meters between our corrugator and some of our converting lines, and we have almost no room for work in progress.  It means we have to be very efficient and we must get the maximum productivity from every machine.”

While Caesar Pac has recently gained approval from the Kuwaiti authorities for a new 10,000 square meter factory, albeit outside the Free Trade Zone, the company must continue to add capacity to its existing plant until the new site is ready.  This involves continuing to maximize the production possible from every machine footprint. The latest investment to do so is a new Bobst Mastercut due to go into production this month.

“We selected the Mastercut as a flat-bed diecutter because we have experience with the 160-Vision. We don’t have enough space in our factory and, especially in Kuwait, it is very expensive to buy a piece of land. That’s why we chose to have triple productivity on the same space as a 160-Vision.”

Three times the production.

At 1700x1300mm, the format of the Mastercut is designed to optimize blank layout for the most common sizes of modern boxes. With speeds reaching 7,500 sheets per hour, the performance of the Mastercut is further increased by its built-in Power Register system. One of the new generation of Bobst dynamic register system, Power Register is a non-sheet edge contact system which takes in the incoming sheet. Using printed marks, or the print on the sheet, as a reference the system brings the sheet into perfect cut-to-print register even at maximum speed. Along with delivering high accuracy in die-cutting, the Power Register system also reduces stops in production by up to 70%, thanks to the feedback it gives to the machine in-feed and to the absence of physical lays. This lack of stops, combined with its high running speed, is why the Mastercut will deliver three times as many ‘sheets on the floor’ as Caesar Pac’s three year old Bobst SPO 160-Vision.

Installing the Bobst Mastercut in the space currently occupied by a lower performing rotary diecutter will allow Caesar Pac to reconfigure its five-color Bobst Flexo-Vision print line for high speed high graphics, so tapping further into this growing market within the Middle East. Having bought the Flexo Vision three years ago to break into one new market, Mr. Hozayen has been so impressed by the quality of the graphics possible on the press that he now wants to push high graphics further.

“Naoufel Ghezal from Bobst Group’s Africa and Middle East office advised us that if we took its diecutting offline we would have the space to add extra print units to the Flexo-Vision, and we could also add Duo-Technik hot air driers and electro-static sheet cleaners. It would mean that we could run high quality graphics faster, print on coated papers, and add varnishes.”

In line with this advice, an additional Flexo-Vision print unit and Duo-Technik equipment will be installed at Caesar Pac this month, while a Bobst Mastercut will replace the company’s in-line SPO 160-Vision.

Running off-line, the Bobst Flexo-Vision can produce at 5,500 sheets per hour and, with short changeovers and simple setting, total productivity is high and waste low. The independent drives on the Flexo-Vision mean that print length can be adjusted for each unit, while longitudinal correction of register is carried out using a motorized system. With the extra print unit making six on the machine, Caesar Pac will be able to run CMYK, a custom color, and varnish.

The Duo-Technik electro static sheet cleaner establishes a corona field which polarizes the dust particles on the board surface. These are lifted off the board by being attracted to twin 15,000 volt electrodes, before being removed by an exhaust unit.  The Duo-Technik hot air drier system consists of interim driers after each printing unit and a final dryer after the last printing unit, all delivering a constant air volume and air speed that will allow the Bobst Flexo-Vision to run at maximum speed even on high graphics work and on coated papers.

Mr. Hozayen says that the support and advice he and his team get from Bobst Group is very important to them, especially when running a three shift operation “I always say that a good company will show itself after you buy their machine. We have a very good relationship with Bobst Africa and Middle East in Tunis. They give us very good support and advice that helps our business. Also we have a service contract with them and that means we don’t have to worry about our machines running well and we only have one place to call if we have a problem.”

High graphics market.

Established less than ten years ago, Caesar Pac has shown exceptional sales growth, both within the Kuwaiti market and in neighboring countries. “We started with a micro-corrugator, a Martin 1224, and a Bobst flat-bed diecutter,” explains Mr. Hozayen. “We were supplying only Kuwait, mostly with beverage trays and food packaging. Four years after starting Caesar Pac we were number one in the Kuwait market. Then we bought the Bobst Flexo 160-Vision and a Martin DRO 1628 NT to be able to print CMYK, because we were going for a different market and our competitors then became companies in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf countries.”

Mr. Hozayen says that this target market was one where flexo printed corrugated packaging could replace litho-laminates and pre-print. “We used to have a laminator to put offset printed sheets onto corrugated to get the quality of print our customers wanted. But the problem with lamination is that it is really very expensive, plus it is very slow in production, which makes the cost high for the customer. When Bobst started producing machines that could print high graphics we knew that the market was going this way. You have to follow the technology from the leaders in the market. With the Martin DRO and Bobst Flexo we were able to compete against companies in other countries that were using litho-lamination or pre-print”

Caesar Pac now supplies the whole range of corrugated packaging, from regular RSC’s, through standard and high graphics die-cut products, to crashlocks and four and six corner boxes. Exporting to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the Gulf, Caesar Pac is now also a major exporter to Iraq, as Mr. Hozayen explains. “When the market opened up after the war we started to export to customers in the South of Iraq. Now we are supplying about 65% of all the corrugated packaging imported by them.”

Before the global financial crisis the company was expanding sales at around twenty percent per year, and while this has dropped slightly, Mr. Hozayen says that Caesar Pac is still continuing the upward trend. “Now our sales in a month are the same as we would make in half a year when we first started.” He puts the company’s ability to get, and keep, the customers needed to create this growth as being down to three things. “I can summarize why customers come to us. It’s because of our delivery on time, the quality of our products, and our service to our customers.  It has been like that since we began.”

While Caesar Pac has the ISO9001 quality standard accreditation one would expect, unusually for a corrugated plant it has also recently achieved the ISO 14001 environmental standard. “Our company philosophy is to be responsible to our community, and also that we don’t have to damage the environment to do our work,” says Mr. Hozayen. “Reducing the effect on the environment of what we do is important to us and it is also something that is encouraged in Kuwait, perhaps more here than in other parts of the world.”

Martin productivity

Alongside his Bobst equipment, Mr. Hozayen has three Martin lines including a 1224, a 618 Miniline FFG, and the latest, a DRO 1628 NT. This latter machine was again purchased to maximize productivity per square meter of the plant, and to deliver the higher quality print customers in the region are demanding. “The productivity we get from the Martin DRO 1628 NT is three times what we would get from a machine designed in the Far East. I don’t have space for three machines but, if I did, I would still buy the DRO because by having just one machine I am reducing the cost of labor three times. “

With its Martin direct drive feeder, fixed height vacuum transfer, and independently driven print units, the DRO delivers exceptionally high print quality with tight register that can be adjusted on the fly. The machine’s closed inking circuit maintains ink viscosity, ensuring that high quality graphics stay that way over the whole length of the run.  Powerful electronic supervisor systems makes setting and operating the DRO easy, while its bundle stacker system delivers higher productivity when running die-cut multi-outs.

On the FFG front, Caesar Pac’s Martin 618 Miniline uses direct drive technology similar to the DRO. Highly automated, the 618 delivers up to 26,000 boxes an hour and at Caesar Pac has been fitted with Martin’s new Top Counter Ejector for the high speed delivery of die-cut products. Able to run gloss paper at high speeds, the 618 can run boxes as small as 190x385mm, making it very versatile.

Mr. Hozayen says that along with the productivity of the Martin lines, their cost of production is lower. “You can buy cheaper machines, but the running costs of them are very high. You have low speed on the machines, too many spare parts needed, and you get quality rejections from the customers, you do not get any of this with Martin machines.”

Improved logistics.

With the Martin and Bobst lines delivering as much productivity as could be expected from the space available at the current Caesar Pac site, Mr. Hozayen is delighted to finally have the opportunity to expand his operation.  The company’s new site will be more than three times the size of the premises currently occupied by Caesar Pac and will house all its converting equipment. Mr. Hozayen says the new site will allow for improved workflows and logistics. “We will keep the corrugator here on the Free Zone site and will specialize in board making here. The new site will specialize in converting and, because it is outside the Free Zone, it will mean there will be fewer restrictions on getting products in and out. It will make delivering to customers easier.”  The new Caesar Pac premises will also house die and printing plate making and the company plans to install a new laser printing plate making unit which will deliver further improvements in quality on high graphics jobs.

But the company’s expansion aims don’t stop here, with plans in place for a facility in Egypt to tap into one of the biggest markets in the region.  The company intends to move some of the equipment currently in Kuwait, including the Bobst SPO 160-Vision diecutter currently in-line with its Flexo-Vision press, to a new site in Egypt. Here it will establish itself using the same unique mix of high quality and high service levels it has been successful with in Kuwait. “We will test the market like this and then we will expand once we have established ourselves,” says Mr. Hozayen.

Mr. Hozayen believes firmly in utilizing new technology to the benefit of both his customers and to Caesar Pac. Along with the company’s Bobst and Martin equipment, Caesar Pac has recently installed new production and management software suites from CTI and Abaca respectively. “Since we got these two systems it has made a huge difference to our delivery times and service. It’s also reduced the number of people needed to manage our production. We always follow new technology that suits our market and will benefit our customers. Just like with this software, we believe by having Bobst and Martin equipment in our plant we have the best technology we can and we get the most productivity we can.”

June 2010