James Townsend
Trials of Rollin LibiX blankets at James Townsend & Sons have been so successful that the Exeter label printer has changed over completely to the Trelleborg made product, which is supplied in the UK by BFS Pressroom Solutions in Berkshire. LibiX blankets, which are suitable for UV and conventional inks, are now in use around the clock on six and eight-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 presses as well as a six-colour Speedmaster 72 model.
“We hadn’t dealt with BFS before, but the company contacted us and the LibiX blanket seemed to provide a solution to particular production issues that we were facing on a regular basis,” says works manager Paul Morris. “For example, running UV inks eventually embosses blankets, which results in the ghost of the previous job on the first sheets of the next print run. In addition, if a press is left standing for a while and the blanket is cold, the tack level can sometimes reach a point where the sheet is pulled out of the grippers. The LibiX blanket resists these problems better than any other blanket we have tried
“We agreed to test the LibiX blanket for three months on our eight-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 and the improvements to productivity and efficiency were significant. Previously, we would fit about 14 new blankets a month on this B1 press, which obviously entailed cost and downtime.
The LibiX blankets have reduced this by around half, a result now duplicated on our other Heidelberg presses. They have also produced good results, whether we are printing on 80 gsm label paper or plastic and whether the press is using UV or conventional inks.
“One of the other benefits of the change to LibiX is that BFS, having analysed our normal blanket usage, provided us with a package where we pay a set amount each month,” says Mr Morris. “This is actually very useful when working out costs and, indeed, our blanket spend is less than the products we had been using, so we’re
delighted with the switch on all accounts!”
Rollin LibiX blankets are manufactured at Trelleborg’s factory in France and sold throughout Europe via a network of well established distributors. The rubber surface has exceptional wear, release and ink transfer properties as well as being chemically formulated to resist aggressive solvents. The polymer compressible layer has been engineered to provide exceptional smash absorption and recovery properties, making the blanket suitable for a wide range of applications including printing cardboard.
James Townsend was formed in 1866 and is the largest independent supplier of wet glue labels in the UK. The company prints cut and stack litho labels as well as reel fed flexo labels on a vast range of substrates, including specialist metallised papers and a full range of plastic films. The Exeter site operates litho and flexo presses as well as a state-of-the-art pre-press department and in-house finishing and warehousing. A recent investment in sophisticated inkjet technology enables the personalisation of individual labels for both print processes.
BFS provides the UK printing industry with an extensive range of consumables, from rollers, inks and packing materials to software and spare parts for finishing equipment, which can be manufactured on-site. The Calcot based company offers a wide range of pressroom chemicals, while its comprehensive blanket converting facilities enables it to ensure fast delivery of cut and barred blankets to suit customers’ particular press requirements.