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