Flexo preprint in top quality for packaging and displays

Panther Print continuously invests in state-of-the-art technologies. Thanks to our pioneering flexographic preprint system, we are optimally equipped for high-quality printing of packaging and displays. As a result, Panther Print has established a leading position in the field of high-quality printed corrugated board solutions.

Packaging and displays are the ambassadors of your brand. With a variety of offers at the point of sale, it is crucial that your packaging and displays make the brand immediately recognisable. The external appearance of a product has a significant influence on the end consumer's purchasing decision. That's why we attach particular importance to first-class image reproduction with brilliant colours and high colour fidelity.

Our continuous investments ensure that we are always at the cutting edge. With our innovative flexo-preprint system, we have the best possible equipment for printing packaging and displays in the highest quality. As a result, Panther Print has achieved an outstanding position in the field of high-quality corrugated board solutions with brilliant image reproduction and exact colour fidelity.

Production

The preprint process consists of printing the liner paper before it is made into corrugated board. Panther Print’s printing technology allows the representation of the finest raster screens and brilliant colours.

Up to eight colours plus varnish with a screen ruling up to 60 L/cm are achieved in a single printing operation. For example, that means 4-colour Euroscale + four special colours and varnish, depending on the customer’s requirements. The central cylinder technology also achieves excellent register accuracy even at the highest production speeds. The result is high-quality printing similar to litho laminating.

Using the direct-drive flexo-preprint machine, we achieve a working width of up to 2.80 metres at a print speed of 600 m/min.

Another single-colour printing press is available for continuous printing.

Panther Print offers many different surface finishes in the form of various varnishes and coatings to protect packaging against colour offset or moisture, or to achieve particular technical or visual effects. For example, this allows papers for displays and packaging to be made non-slip, antistatic, high-gloss varnished, water-repellent, metallically coated or finished with (gold or other) effect pigments.

Services

  • Raster printing (up to 60s raster) and line prints with up to eight colours plus varnish
  • Single-colour all-over printing (e.g. monochrome colouring in the customer’s house colour)
  • Printing special coatings, e.g.:
    • Antistatic coating
    • Grease-repellent coating
    • Water-repellent coating
    • Non-slip coating
    • Dust-repellent coating
    • Food-safe coatings
    • High-gloss varnishing
  • Printing on PE paper, and even on PE substitute paper
  • Toll printing
  • Procuring paper/printing substrates (including kraft liner, lightweight paper, test liner, recycling papers, grass-based papers etc.)

Technical service

Panther Print offers numerous additional printing-related services. From design to delivery, Panther Print helps match the product to the requirements of the further processing method, to lead to a successful end-product.

Services

  • Data transfer from you or from your customer
  • Repro, artwork and printing plate production in cooperation with a service provider
  • Designing printing suggestions
  • Conversion to an endless repeat pattern
  • Supporting and implementing the entire release process up to the approval of proofs and proof runs
  • Production of technical web drawings based on the die-cutting tool, taking into account unit cut-off length, cut-off marks and web edge control
  • Preparing single-repeat PDFs and printer tickets
  • Preparing sheet layouts
  • Preparing colour tolerance cards

Consulting

Every preprint project is different not only in relation to colours, formats and print run sizes, but also in the detailed requirements or further stages of processing. Our task is to take all of this into account from the economic point of view and to communicate it to the customer. Our competent staff are available to support you at any time:

  • Print consulting (e.g. regarding print build-up, screen resolution, print run size)
  • Provision of help and advice when introducing preprint
  • Handling or mediating contacts with advertising agencies, e.g. to adhere to a successful corporate design in the context of further marketing activities, or to display brand characteristics consistently in the design
  • Help and advice in designing for the future with digitalising solutions in the context of Industry 4.0

Panther Smart Print – Use of lightweight paper

We are always working on solutions based on our strategy of sustainability, while not forgetting the requirements of the market. These include, for example, reductions in the use of materials. With this in mind, Panther Smart Print offers the corrugated board and paper processing sectors lightweight grades of paper with reduced area-related mass (also known as “grammage”).

The Flexo-Preprint method allows us both to reduce material weights and create high-quality print results. This lower material weight also has a positive effect on the cost of eventual disposal, thereby delivering both economic and ecological benefits.

White testliner with a basis weight of 100 g/m² to 110 g/m², both uncoated and coated, is available for high-quality printed packaging and displays. These lightweight papers are ideal substrates for flexographic preprints, on which the desired motifs can be reproduced according to specifications. The pre-printing process hardly puts any strain on the print-bearing paper, so that even complex, multi-colored print motifs can be achieved without any impairment. Thus, the flexo preprint process can be benefited from on lightweight corrugated papers.

Coatings

Developing alternative packaging concepts for a better CO2 balance and recyclability as well as doing without composite materials and plastics is of great importance. A high-quality and multicolored design of packaging is also on a par with the protective properties that contribute to the integrity and quality preservation of the filling goods. The experts at Panther Print process specific coatings directly on the printing machine, which are, for example, resistant to water or grease. With these processed paper webs, corrugated board allows a wide range of new applications that meet current market requirements. The food industry, for example, can benefit from Panther Print's coating technology for numerous products: inner linings for vegetable trays or for packaging frozen fish are equipped with water-resistant barriers. Corrugated board packaging with fat-resistant barriers on the inner lining offers semi-finished products such as raw chocolate, i.e. products with a high fat content, optimum product protection. Their effectiveness is also determined in suitable tests, for example DIN 53116. Specific barrier coatings can also be implemented for deep-freeze applications, which allow the products to be frozen, thawed and baked in the packaging.

A wide range of interesting possible applications can also be found in the non-food sector. For example, corrugated board packaging with an antistatic coating for electronic items on corrugated board is beneficial. Coatings for dust binding were developed for the glass industry.

 

Varnishes and coatings: protection and enhancement of packaging

Corrugated board packaging can be provided with a wide variety of coatings.All varnishes and coatings refine the packaging. At Panther Print, these coatings are applied in preprint coating units supported by transfer rollers and squeegee systems in one operation during the printing process:  

  • High-gloss coatings
  • Protective coatings
  • Anti-slip finishes
  • Various coatings

The varnishes and printing inks used by Panther are water-based acrylic resin varnish, paints and coatings that are practically solvent-free. According to the definition of the printing ink industry, these products are also considered to be free of heavy metals.