Ink World staff05.22.20
STA's January 2019 investment in an Acuity B1 is just the latest step on a journey into digital print for metal decoration.
Italy-based STA s.r.l., located near Turin, is a metal decoration printing specialist and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emmeti s.r.l which is the exclusive supplier of ICAS Spa – the world's leading cap and wire manufacturer for sparkling wine and Champagne bottles.
The 1.4 billion caps and wire cages the company produces annually, and exports all around the world, represents approximately 70% of the total global market share.
Until the founding of STA in the early 1990s, Emmeti had outsourced all printing work for its disc caps, but even as long ago as that, the market was beginning to demand more and more customization and personalization.
Emmeti's lithographic print suppliers were unable to offer the levels of flexibility required by changing customer demands. The founding of STA as a lithographic metal decoration specialist was their answer.
"We began experimenting with digital technologies 10 years ago," Director Marco Trotto Gatta said. "There's a steady trend in the market for shorter runs and more customization and personalization - so we've been looking at the best ways to develop as a business in order to meet that demand for a long time. Our first digital press had some clear limitations: it was extremely slow, very dependent on manual processes, and the quality wasn't quite what we wanted. We were on the lookout for a high-quality digital press with offset-style and in-line architecture to make it easy to use.
"There were some teething problems, but we were able to offer advice from our own substantial industry experience and, working closely with Fujifilm technicians and with technicians from Inca Digital, the manufacturer, we've made excellent progress in adapting the press for high-quality, short-run metal decoration," he continued. "We're now printing between 100 and 120 sheets per hour on the Acuity B1 - more than 10 times what our previous digital press could manage. This allows us to do short-run jobs that would previously have had to be litho-printed, and importantly it has also allowed us to take on customized, high-value work. We're now able to deliver some jobs in a matter of days that would previously have taken us several weeks.
"For some of our smaller customers, who would previously have had to settle for single color caps, it provides a huge opportunity to order custom designs. And for our bigger customers, where previously we had to charge them for a single, litho-printed sample, we can now cost-effectively produce multiple samples in varying designs and colors so that they can get a full appreciation of the possibilities.
"The fact that the system is automated and the feeder and the stacker are all in-line as well, means that our operator is freed up to perform other tasks while the machine is printing. It's also very straight-forward and uncomplicated to use. This is important because unlike with offset print, where the level of quality you can achieve is very reliant on the level of skill of the operator, the Acuity B1 prints exceptionally high levels of quality at the press of a button. Furthermore, it doesn't have the downtime of our litho presses, where color changes typically take 30 to 40 minutes per color. This time can really add up too, as we only have one color litho press."
Italy-based STA s.r.l., located near Turin, is a metal decoration printing specialist and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emmeti s.r.l which is the exclusive supplier of ICAS Spa – the world's leading cap and wire manufacturer for sparkling wine and Champagne bottles.
The 1.4 billion caps and wire cages the company produces annually, and exports all around the world, represents approximately 70% of the total global market share.
Until the founding of STA in the early 1990s, Emmeti had outsourced all printing work for its disc caps, but even as long ago as that, the market was beginning to demand more and more customization and personalization.
Emmeti's lithographic print suppliers were unable to offer the levels of flexibility required by changing customer demands. The founding of STA as a lithographic metal decoration specialist was their answer.
"We began experimenting with digital technologies 10 years ago," Director Marco Trotto Gatta said. "There's a steady trend in the market for shorter runs and more customization and personalization - so we've been looking at the best ways to develop as a business in order to meet that demand for a long time. Our first digital press had some clear limitations: it was extremely slow, very dependent on manual processes, and the quality wasn't quite what we wanted. We were on the lookout for a high-quality digital press with offset-style and in-line architecture to make it easy to use.
"There were some teething problems, but we were able to offer advice from our own substantial industry experience and, working closely with Fujifilm technicians and with technicians from Inca Digital, the manufacturer, we've made excellent progress in adapting the press for high-quality, short-run metal decoration," he continued. "We're now printing between 100 and 120 sheets per hour on the Acuity B1 - more than 10 times what our previous digital press could manage. This allows us to do short-run jobs that would previously have had to be litho-printed, and importantly it has also allowed us to take on customized, high-value work. We're now able to deliver some jobs in a matter of days that would previously have taken us several weeks.
"For some of our smaller customers, who would previously have had to settle for single color caps, it provides a huge opportunity to order custom designs. And for our bigger customers, where previously we had to charge them for a single, litho-printed sample, we can now cost-effectively produce multiple samples in varying designs and colors so that they can get a full appreciation of the possibilities.
"The fact that the system is automated and the feeder and the stacker are all in-line as well, means that our operator is freed up to perform other tasks while the machine is printing. It's also very straight-forward and uncomplicated to use. This is important because unlike with offset print, where the level of quality you can achieve is very reliant on the level of skill of the operator, the Acuity B1 prints exceptionally high levels of quality at the press of a button. Furthermore, it doesn't have the downtime of our litho presses, where color changes typically take 30 to 40 minutes per color. This time can really add up too, as we only have one color litho press."