Sign & Seal raises UV flexo capacity

Three years ago, Sign & Seal Labels invested in Cape Town’s first Mark Andy Performance Series P3 press. At that time, Sign & Seal owner Henk Crous was determined to take his business to a fresh level, particularly citing a move away from highly-competitive commodity markets into the realm of sophisticated, added-value labels, notably for upmarket wine labels.

‘Our wine label ratio has now reached 60:40,’ he confirmed. ‘And in the last year alone we've seen a 35 percent volume growth in our business.’

However, to meet growing demand for increasingly sophisticated labels, yet another step was needed in his strategic investment program.

‘Last year, we started to run out of capacity and had to take fast action. To meet demand, it was clear that we needed to improve our flexibility, and especially we needed additional UV capability.’

Having enjoyed a long association with the Rotocon team, especially for the supply of tooling requirements, Crous turned to Michael and Pascal Aengenvoort for advice and the result was the retrofitting of a UV Ray curing system to an older Mark Andy 2200 8-color press – bringing it bang up to date in terms of UV flexo capabilities.

Prime benefits of the UV Ray installation – only the second in this country – are the ability to upgrade an older machine with a competitively-priced UV curing system; an open design that enables technicians to work on power packs; and a reduction in electricity consumption and emissions.

Crous said: ‘A plug-in port on the side of each brick allows us to obtain an online breakdown of faults, plus diagnostics and maintenance plans from UV Ray's headquarters in Italy.’

Sign & Seal Labels continues to grow and is planning to acquire adjacent premises to provide 30 percent more floor space, and a further investment in a new digital press.