Packaging Solutions
Mark Andy has recently organised two online meetings for international students from printing oriented technical universities. On 23 of April the company invited students from Poland; on 26 of April, from the rest of the world. Both events were conducted by Mark Andy’s specialists. The company also invited special guests – the representatives of Watershed Group (including the Polish based Etiko printer), its well established customer and business partner. The webinars included live presentations of Mark Andy presses installed in its demo centres in Poland and the US as well as questions and answers sessions. The agenda of both webinars covered Mark Andy’s knowledge about technologies, presses from the company, as well as market trends and job opportunities in label printing business area.
from the customer point of view, the benefits of using Mark Andy solutions were explained. Tadeusz Kozinski, director of Etiko was a guest of the Polish session; Kirwan Waters, director of Watershed Group, presented his views during the international session.
The participants of both webinars were welcomed by Lena Chmielewska-Bontron, European marketing manager Mark Andy. She underlined that, even during the current pandemic, webinars devoted for students prove the company’s commitment to keeping in touch with younger generations and providing them with knowledge. The events were moderated by Lukasz Chruslinski, sales manager Mark Andy Poland (the Polish session) and Phil Baldwin, European sales manager Mark Andy UK (the English webinar). During the Polish session they were supported by Lukasz Kaczynski, Warsaw demo room manager, Grzegorz Rostkowski and Michal Mokrzycki, print specialists. During the international session James Mayenschein and Kevin Glatz, the representatives from the St Louis showroom were involved, too.
Lukasz Chruslinski and Phil Baldwin presented Mark Andy, including its history. They underlined that the company, established in 1946, is one of the oldest and the biggest manufacturers of narrow web flexo and digital presses devoted for label production. Nowadays, the company has around 8500 presses installed worldwide.
Mark Andy operates from three main locations: the US, the UK and Poland. It also has many divisions in other countries worldwide. Its printing presses are based on the main printing technologies used in label production: flexo, hybrid (inkjet and flexo, toner and flexo) and rotary screen. Currently Mark Andy offers two series of flexo presses: Evolution Series E3/E5 and Performance Series, both devoted to manufacturing longer runs of labels, wrap-ups, cups, shrink sleeve, self-adhesives and many more. As the speakers indicated, modern label printers expect quick press set up and job changeover, press’ functionality enabling economic production in smaller runs (including versioning and variable data) as well as substrate savings. Press manufacturers try to meet these expectations by designing even better machines allowing for this kind of production on a wider spectrum of substrates, including renewable ones. Mark Andy’s response to this are Digital Pro and Digital Series iQ hybrid presses, as well as Digital Series HD, its flagship hybrid/digital model.
Lukasz Chruslinski and Phil Baldwin presented the current market situation, which – despite a global pandemic – is positive for label producers and converters.
The students of both webinars were deeply interested in demonstrations of presses installed at two Mark Andys’s showrooms – in Poland and the US. The Polish session focused on the Digital Series HD. It was used for printing jobs containing variable data with high flexibility, speed and quality guaranteed by four CMYK inkjet modules and additional flexo and finishing stations. The first job was a shampoo label, including different versions, followed by an orange juice label with a gold embellishment. The participants witnessed a very quick job changeover (it took only several minutes), which is significant in terms of shorter runs and different label versions.
The Warsa -based demo centre is also equipped with Digital Pro 3 and Evolution Series E3 presses. Annually it runs more than 120 presentations.
The world webinar saw demonstrations from the US based showroom, which is equipped in Digital Series iQ – the newest member of a digital/hybrid family as well as Performance P7 flexo press.
‘We are sure that these kind of meetings give students a great opportunity for getting knowledge about printing technologies and their use in different types of production and final assortment,’ said Lena Chmielewska-Bontron. ‘Moreover, they learn about a current market situation and the trends. Hopefully all of this will inspire them in choosing printing industry when considering future occupation. For many years Mark Andy has been committed to sharing our experiences and knowledge with the youngest generation of future printers. On the other hand, we wish to encourage other manufacturers and printing companies to build closer relations with students and teachers. Together we can upgrade skills of the future employees of our companies; what we have to do is to show the right way and enable access to specific tools. We wish to thank all the webinars’ guests and participants and we are extremely happy about their interest in Mark Andy’s online events.’
