The news was made official last March: Simonazzi, specialized in flexo printing solutions with a portfolio of products and solutions for flexo printing and prepress, with the representation agreement with the German manufacturer Allstein, launches itself on the Italian market with a range of high-performance central drum flexo presses.
Allstein is a young German company based in Herford in northern Germany and has been operating on the market for about ten years, but boasts first-rate know-how and specific skills, with a staff of about 150 people and an R&D team with years of experience in building of flexographic printing machines.
A production facility of about 6500 square meters, installed machine park of about 100 units, an operating philosophy that foresees the internal production of all the crucial parts of the machine with a production process entirely under control and a worldwide assistance service, with technicians sent where necessary in less than 48 hours and a remote service guaranteed for the entire life cycle of the machine are the cornerstones of the approach of this manufacturer who with Simonazzi wants to face our market.
Built by printers for printers
“The corporate claim is ‘Made by Printers. For Printer’, begins Enrico Albani, Sales Director of Simonazzi who has been representing Allstein in Italy since last March. “Allstein was founded at the time of the transfer of Fischer&Krecke to BOBST Group, when some engineers preferred to continue their own path, starting this new company in the field of flexo printing technologies, with the precise intention of providing the market with high-end and customized solutions, also thanks to the idea of the manager of research and development Gordon Whitelaw, at that time, who is now the majority shareholder of Allstein. We are dealing with a company that represents the top of the market in terms of quality and performance, very competitive in the water-based printing sector. There is a special installation in the United States in the water-based paper preprint sector which has a light of 2.70 m which has a very important commercial value and certainly not in line with European standards, but it is the flagship of Allstein’s philosophy, that is offering highly customized solutions”, comments Albani, obviously emphasizing that the range of solutions that will be offered to Italian printers, in particular the line for short runs, falls within the parameters of a price/quality ratio absolutely in line with the market.
Two models are proposed, Sprint and Hydro, but the focus is on customization
Two machines are proposed in the Allstein catalogue, the Sprint with a compact design for short runs with a printing width from 850 to 1250 mm, 8 colors and a maximum speed of 400 meters per minute and the larger Hydro, 1250-1850 mm of printing width, 8-10 colors and maximum speed up to 800 meters per minute for long runs.
Allsten’s philosophy is not to provide standardized machines, but after a careful analysis of the customer’s needs, opening dedicated projects with technicians who will follow the entire development, building, disassembly and reassembly phase by the customer, this because each project has its specific characteristics and the company believes that only those who have followed the order from the beginning should then assist the customer when the machine is installed and in production.
“85% of the machine is built internally with a quality process that is completely under control. The machine can be supplied with manual, semi-automatic, fully automatic or robotic plate mounting systems. In the top-of-the-range version we have robots that take the plate, place it on the sleeve, insert it into the machine without requested action by the operator. Furthermore, in the case of 4-colour jobs, while the machine is printing, the operator can prepare the other 4 printing elements for the next order”, adds Enrico Albani, underlining how the company pays great attention to the structural solidity of the frame and elements such as the central drum, which for a width of 1300-1400 mm weighs up to 35 tons, and is made of machined steel.
Performing technologies but easy to manage
The building philosophy of these flexo machines is the research for excellence, in every aspect, such as for example the drying system for water-based inks, which notoriously represents a fairly complex problem in the flexo printing process. In this case, a system based on the air emission speed was studied. Details, however, which give a good idea of the attention that the designers dedicate to the research of high performance for a very high-quality print yield.
“On the market Allstein has the reputation of producing expensive machines, but from what I’m seeing and what’s behind it in terms of structure, organization and service, that’s not the case at all. Even for various components that are available to anyone on the market, Allstein suggests contacting individual suppliers directly, without going through their spare parts warehouse, and all for maintenance and therefore cost management, which where possible can be contained and performed directly by the customer. These machines envisage two scheduled interventions a year”, concludes Enrico Albani, underlining that Simonazzi, although enthusiastic about this partnership which launches the Milanese retailer into the world of flexo printing with a leading role, will not lose sight of the historic printer customers with all its products and solutions that have made it a point of reference in Italy for prepress and flexo printing companies.
