Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Print4Caps (Printing cap system with LED UV drying system with improved efficiency and quality)
Reporting period: 2018-05-01 to 2018-08-31
World production for wine and spirits bottle caps is supported by a niche market focused on the manufacturing of offset printing machines adapted to their cylindrical shapes. Despite the adoption of UV curable inks around 30 years ago, it hasn’t been possible to print on the cap sides due to paint breaking during UV varnish. Today the printing sector is registering an increase worldwide with constant innovation to increase efficiency in processes, enhance quality and reduce unnecessary costs. CALF is a company with more than 50 years’ experience in the printing industry. Our mission is to offer innovative solutions to clients which significantly impact the efficiency of their industrial processes. Our project, Print4Caps, is a new revolutionary offset caps printing machine specific for aluminum tops that uses LED UV inks, built with contained LED UV lamps system to dry the ink.
We have confirmed the technical feasibility of the assembly of our prototype, thanks to the experience acquired building other models where we improved some crucial parts for a better attachment of the cap that will imply a radical increase in production figures and accuracy of finishing. Due to a gap in the market, these advanced changes had been achieved by directly listening to market demands, which will also be our customer base for selling our product securely to a well-known network of clients. Our business plan also includes a direct sales model and expansion across Europe (Italy, Germany, Bulgaria, Slovenia) and globally (Chile, Australia, Korea).
Print4Caps allows to change standard procedures, consisting in the use of large ovens or UV ink systems, to a faster, cleaner, and more efficient method. Main advantages of our machine are that it can print top and side of aluminum bottle caps in just one compact highly-productive machine, increasing production dramatically by at least 3 times. Our technical success measures also are a reduction of 90% of the carbon footprint, reduced size machine to 10%, and high productivity of printed caps at 30,000 pieces/hour with 20% higher quality than the state-of-the-art. These features will significantly impact the market, as there’s no existence of similar machinery that uses our innovative circumferential printing cycle, the idea we aim to patent to transform the market. CALF’s strategic goal is to become a reference in the printing machine landscape after full technological development in Phase 2, when Print4Caps will reach the market.