Italian company MOSS is going to install a new plastic pail decorating line at a prominent manufacturer of plastic packaging of Central Asia
The Italian company MOSS srl, based in Reggio Emilia and with more than 50 years of experience in the printing machines industry, is going to install a new plastic pail decorating line at a prominent manufacturer of plastic packaging of Central Asia.
This new line consists of two equipment, also available as stand-alone production units, already in MOSS range for long time: the first machine is the renowned 6-color offset printer MO 4013 that, for this occasion, is directly linked to the MP8 LAC lacquering machine.
The whole line is fully automated through a feeding/denesting system and a stacker with piece counting and collecting table, respectively positioned at the start and at the end of the line. Besides, pails are gently transferred from printer to lacquering machine by means of an automatic manipulator.
Thanks to its high flexibility, this printing line allows for an effective and efficient processing of pails in up to 20-liter capacity with 20 units per minute throughput, that can reach the remarkable figure of about 35 units in case of 5-liter items. Pails with plastic and metal handles are easily decorated thanks to a specific system exclusively designed to the purpose.
The special “from-stack-to-stack” arrangement makes the work of the operators much easier; on top of that, the special configuration frees up resources and it enables to increase the overall productivity of the line.
Ink and lacquer curing take place through on-mandrel UV systems, respectively installed on the offset printer and on the lacquering machine.
The dry-offset printing technology translates into low ink consumption, flexibility, high printing accuracy and reliable print reproduction, thus making this decorating line an option to, or a complement of, other decorating systems like the In-Mould Labelling (IML) or Heat Transfer (HT), the latter already present in MOSS range for over a decade and particularly suitable for responding to small batch production.
MOSS has been able to install this printing line into 4.0 smart factories for several years now, thanks to the technology residing within all their equipment, combining cutting-edge engineering and ease of use.
A B&R PC/PLC manages the whole line through a simple, intuitive and multilingual touchscreen HMI. Remote control makes it possible for the machine to interact with the factory IT system to allow for data collection and analytics, including production statistics and energy consumption. It is even possible to load scheduled productions from one’s office computer or from any place where Internet access is available. A Wi-Fi industrial-grade tablet is an added benefit that allows the operator a smoother control of the equipment.
The control system of the described printing line, like the entire post-2010 MOSS production, allows for remote diagnostic by MOSS programmers to implement new software releases, troubleshooting (even video call-aided) and apply system modifications.
In addition to this, production and performance reports can be accessed worldwide by means of an internationally-recognized protocol and a dedicated smartphone APP – now available for iOS and Android – allows for real-time monitoring of all MOSS machines.
This fully automated line is a point of pride for MOSS, the only Italian company to produce and supply dry-offset printing systems for pails to world-leading plastic packaging manufacturers for more than 30 years.
