Ghelfi Ondulati transforms packaging printing with water-based digital preprint
The well-known Italian converter has successfully completed the start-up of its digital printing project based on the combination of an HP PageWide T1170 and a BHS corrugator
There are two characteristics that, more than others, make Ghelfi Ondulati a unique company: a business model focused on ultra-efficient production of packaging for the fruit and vegetable industry, and a history studded with technological choices based on excellence. Confirming this, in 2016, the Valtellina-based converter was the first Italian company, and one of the first in the world, to install the HP PageWide T400S (in January) and HP PageWide T1100S (in September) web-fed digital printing presses.
Ghelfi Ondulati was born in 1952 in Talamona (SO) as a sheet plant. In 1977, it moved to the current site of Buglio in Monte, where the first corrugator arrived in 1992, transforming the company into a full-service corrugated box plant.
Today, the company converts 80 million square meters per year with about 160 employees and a turnover of almost 90 million euros.
From generalist packaging to focusing on fruit and vegetables
Disadvantaged by a peripheral geographic location, Ghelfi Ondulati has been trying since the 1980s to break into a sector with narrow margins. Serving apple producers in the adjacent valleys of Trentino, the company specializes in the production of fruit containers, rapidly expanding its business to Central and Southern Italy, France and Spain. Today, 80% of Ghelfi Ondulati’s turnover comes from the sale of packaging for fruit and vegetables. The company’s offering revolves around high-quality products, enriched with technical, sometimes patented, innovations. The company has also studied some ancillary services aimed at simplifying and improving its customers’ lives. For example, it provides a tray-forming machine on loan to a selected network of partners (mainly the fruit and vegetable producers themselves), who can then store the trays in a flat format and assemble only the quantity they actually need at the time.
Quality and efficiency, founding values and the prelude to digital printing
Before the arrival of digital, Ghelfi Ondulati handled its printed product volumes only with post-print flexo machines — including a 7-color BOBST Masterflex HD, used for high-quality packaging on coated paper. For converting, the company relies on two rotary die-cutting machines and a BOBST Mastercut flatbed die-cutter with Power Register system, for a perfect match between print and die layout — a complete fleet of machines, efficiently organized, but one that the company does not consider sufficient to face the new challenges imposed by the market: more fragmented orders, lower quantities, shorter delivery times, and packaging that must “interact” with consumers. This makes digital printing an unavoidable investment. To this end, Ghelfi Ondulati sets up a “task force” in 2015, led by Luca Simoncini, to identify the most suitable solution.
The choice of preprint
The first decision Simoncini and his team have to make is whether to adopt a post- or pre-print machine. Some consider digital pre-print to be more rigid and complex than post-print, arguing, for example, that post-print inkjet printing carried out on precut corrugated sheets makes it possible to produce small batches more efficiently — a claim that Ghelfi Ondulati does not share. “If you make packaging for a specific use, you can’t convert sheets of generic carton. Besides, keeping the latter in stock is a cost,” explains Simoncini. “Maybe it makes sense if you print a few hundred boxes with a multi-pass printer, and then cut them with a digital cutting table. But not in industrial production.”
To carry out his project, Ghelfi Ondulati ordered a 2.8-meter BHS corrugator, preconfigured for integration into a digital workflow with a digital web-fed press.
When evaluating the press, models of the desired width are not yet available, so the choice falls on the HP PageWide T400S, with a span of 1,060 mm and a maximum linear speed of 183 m/min. The HP platform convinces Simoncini with its water-based inks, 1,200 dpi resolution and compatibility with both coated and uncoated papers.
An integrated water-based process
The press is installed in January 2016 in a new area of the plant with temperature and humidity control and a dust suppression system. The first few months of use allow the process to be fine-tuned; operators to be trained; and workflow, color, and variable data management skills to be increased. All this happens so quickly that when, at drupa 2016, HP unveils the T1100 series, with a print width of 2,774 mm, Ghelfi Ondulati is already a candidate to purchase the machine.
The new HP PageWide T1100S press is installed by Ghelfi Ondulati in autumn 2016. “We didn’t feel ready, but HP encouraged us to enter the T1100 program because of our particular interpretation of the technology,” says Simoncini. “Some corrugated multinationals were aiming to use it to replace flexo printing in the production of boxes and other corrugated bulk products, while our project focused on the value of customization.”
Finally, in 2018, the converter upgrades the machine to the T1170 version, which has two additional color channels (orange and violet).
The system Ghelfi Ondulati installs is configured with an unwinder, pre-coater, inkjet printing unit, dryer, inspection system, post-coater, and rewinder.
In combination with the water-based pigment inks, HP has developed a proprietary primer (HP Priming Agent) for the PageWide Industrial series which is applied with the pre-coater to enhance ink adhesion and print quality on coated linerboards. To improve the optical density of the image on natural papers, machines of that series can also use a dedicated inkjet head bar to apply an additional fluid (HP Bonding Agent) to the areas that will be printed.
In order to further increase reliability and repeatable quality, Ghelfi Ondulati has chosen to install an Isra Vision inspection system onboard the machine. In real time, the device verifies color, density, registration accuracy, positioning of the file on the web, and consistency between the printed graphics and the original file. Variable-data control is among the functions that will be implemented shortly.
Corrugator and digital press: two sides of a multi-lane production flow
More than the increased productivity (30,600 m²/h compared to the 11,640 m²/h of the T400S), the PageWide T1170’s print width has led Ghelfi Ondulati to full compatibility between press and corrugator, making it possible to produce in multi-lane mode. Like nesting in large-format digital printing or gang-run printing in offset, multi-lane production involves combining multiple jobs or multiple versions of the same job on the same web. The complexity of this approach arises in the corrugator, which has to create the corrugated board at very high speed, starting from the printed linerboards, and then cut and separate the individual jobs before releasing the corrugated sheets on the stacker, ready for subsequent die cutting.
Ghelfi Ondulati’s corrugator uses a camera-based registration system between printing and cutting. It detects QR codes, printed together with the graphics, and communicates to the corrugator when a job change has to take place. The latter operation then takes place at speed, with minimal waste, thanks to the ability to rapidly change between sets of longitudinal blades and adjust the rhythm of the crosscutter.
An efficient workflow
Ghelfi Ondulati has achieved high efficiency in digital production on both long and medium runs. “If we have time to schedule a job in advance, then we are able to print it alone. But it is common to print seven, eight or ten different jobs together. There are days when we even make ten job changes in eight hours,” continues Simoncini.
The company uses the PageWide T1170 on one shift, 5 days a week, covering 20% of its printing needs. But the goal is to move all printed volumes to the inkjet. “Soon we will upgrade the machine to the T1190 version, which will bring the speed up to 305 m/min, allowing us to produce over 100 million square meters per year,” explains Simoncini. “To produce the same volume with post-print technology, we would need several printers side by side, which would lower efficiency.” Regarding costs, the choice of a digital press with higher quality than flexo has put the company in the position of not having (nor wanting) to make a direct comparison with the conventional process. “We have not made precise breakeven calculations with the flexo, and it’s plausible that the printing alone is more expensive digitally,” explains Simoncini. “In our opinion, the economic benefit should be sought in other factors, such as higher quality, process consistency, variable data and elimination of printing plates.”
Pre-press, creativity and marketing, together to win
Pre-press operators at Ghelfi Ondulati use HP SmartStream suite software, including Composer, to manage variable text, images and QR codes. Melinda’s case is emblematic, with its 3.2 million trays personalized with the photos of 1,000 growers. But customization also played a key role in many other projects. “For Ciliegia di Vignola, we created a tray with variable graphics and QR codes. Then we developed an app allowing their end consumers to know where and when the cherries they are eating were harvested,” says Roberta Bottà, Marketing Manager of Ghelfi Ondulati. “For a company that goes from the field to the supermarket in 24 hours, it’s a great marketing plus.” For Mondodelvino’s customer, the converter produced boxes that reproduce various portions of a larger image; if put side by side and stacked together they create a display island. For advanced customization projects, the company uses HP Mosaic. “Once we understood the advantages of digital, we explained them to customers,” concludes Bottà. “By demonstrating its benefits and creative opportunities, we encourage designers to develop ambitious creative projects.”
Towards a 100% digital, sustainable and profitable offer
Among the distinctive factors of Ghelfi Ondulati’s digital offering are the eco-sustainability and recyclability of the products, facilitated by HP’s water-based technology. “We believe that water-based inks are more consistent with our customers’ profile and more compatible with packaging recycling processes,” explains Simoncini.
The last challenge that the company is about to face is to amortize the investment made; a goal that it counts on reaching with the progressive shift of jobs from flexo to digital and with the acquisition of new printing volumes. “The plan is to saturate the production capacity of the T1170 as soon as possible. It will take a few years, but we can say that digital has had the desired effect, also causing new customers to spontaneously turn to us,” concludes Simoncini.
Born in the same way as an independent start-up, today the digital department of Ghelfi Ondulati can be said to have launched successfully. Since spring 2020, it has been managed by the company’s technical department and become an integral part of its production workflow.
