SMART DESIGN

98 | L&L
GUSTAVO ALTERMAN with an example of a
booklet label printed on a Mark Andy press
Alterman says has ‘almost never stopped’ since then, running
24 hours a day, seven days a week.
In 2002, Raal added a second Gallus letterpress, this time
with six colors, also equipped with hot stamping and flat-bed
die-cutting. Two years later, the company bought a second
Mark Andy – an 8-color 2200. An HP Indigo ws4050 digital
press was installed in 2006 – Argentina’s second after Artes
Gráficas Modernas – alongside Cartes finishing equipment
which provides hot stamping, silkscreen and die-cutting. A
third Mark Andy 2200 arrived in December last year, an 8-color
fully UV machine.
Four Arpeco machines handle finishing and inspection,
alongside a stamping machine from a Chinese manufacturer
and two machines for numbering and inspection – one built
in-house and the second from China – that are equipped with
View Factor vision systems and inkjet heads for coding.
Today the company employs 60 people and has a monthly
production rate of 200,000 sqm. Its wide product range
includes Braille, in-mold, booklet, security, thermochromic and
shrink labels, as well as labels with aromatic inks and with handles.
Raal serves a variety of markets – including beverage, food, home
care, personal care, promotional, track & trace, nutraceutical, and
batteries and lubricants for cars – but 60 percent of clients are in the
pharmaceutical sector.
‘We mainly serve clients who require short runs with multiple
changes. There is no reliance on any one customer,’ says Alterman.
An example of the company’s short run work could be found on
the day of L&L’s visit, with a job of 1,000 labels being sent to an
important pharmaceutical client in Uruguay. Up to 10 percent of
production is exported to Chile, Colombia, Honduras, Paraguay,
Peru and Uruguay.
An in-house pre-press department, equipped with DuPont Cyrel
technology, produces silkscreen plates for the Gallus and Cartes
machines, while flexo plates come from a local pre-press company
with whom Raal jointly purchased a Kodak Flexcel NX platemaking
system. For jobs carried out at Labels Bolivia, files are put together
in Buenos Aires that collate information about dies, plates and other
specifications and then sent to Cochabamba.
While the pre-press department doesn’t handle design work, the
company has helped to educate brand owners through regular
breakfast meetings about the capabilities of digital printing. ‘It has
been a slow process,’ admits Alterman, ‘but it has been worth it.’
The HP Indigo press, which runs two shifts, now counts for around
17 percent of sales.
The technological synergy between the plants extends to the
Aramis RIP system, handling budgeting, orders and stock control,
which is operated in both Buenos Aires and Cochabamba. A
workflow system from Argentine supplier SisPro – which will
automatically feed data from the presses into the Aramis system
– is currently being installed in Buenos Aires and is also due to be
implemented in Labels Bolivia. The workflow system also includes
coding of each pallet for internal traceability, while specifications of
some 22,000 jobs are kept on file.
There is a clear focus on synergy and constant communication
LABELS&LABELING