It was all smiles on the OMET stand at drupa when Will Tompson, General Manager from The Van Dyke Press, joined the OMET and Currie Group teams on-stand to confirm the purchase of a new OMET XFLEX X6.0 530 from Currie Group.
The new machine will join the Sydney-based company’s existing eight-colour XFLEX 6 430press, which has been running at the company for 14 years, establishing an impressive track record which was a major factor in this most recent sale, Will said. The nine-colour, highly-automated 530 mm wide machine will not only provide extra capacity for the company, but also an additional colour and higher UV capacity, to enhance the production of its range of specialty foil closures.
With its versatile, modular design, the XFlex X6.0 also provides for the future, allowing easy integration of further finishing units – from rotary silk screen, to hot foil, embossing or hologram transfer. “The 530 is a wider machine, basically giving us 33% more capacity with the extra row of product we can fit on the roll,” Will explains. “It also offers one more colour than our existing eight-colour press to help match even the most challenging brand colours, and provides plenty of scope for future enhancements.”
The Van Dyke Press, established 65 years ago, originally specialised in producing sheet-fed offset labels on paper for products from dog food to beer, but in more recent years has moved into in-mould products and now specialises in aluminium foil lids for products like yoghurt cups.
“We did try sheet-fed, paper-based labels for a while, but there was no question the market was moving to aluminium lids. No one in Australia was doing those at that point – but we really felt that we had to dive into meeting their needs or risk losing some of our best customers.”
With no prior experience in flexo printing, the company did a full evaluation of the available technologies and eventually settled on OMET, reasoning that they could also expand into flexible packaging in future if needed. The decision has proven a sound one in the ensuing years, with the company now so busy keeping up with demand for foil closures that they have yet to explore other applications.
“The OMET has been an outstanding investment for us and has allowed us to continue to meet the need for aluminium lids, which just continues to grow and grow, and over the years, we have invested in a suite of cutting and pressing equipment to keep up with demand. With demand growing at something like 10%, year on year, however, the company knew that more press power was required, and this year set about doing its due diligence on the current range of suitable presses to complement its current set-up.
“We have been absolutely thrilled with our original OMET, but it was nearly 15 years since we had done our research. Technology moves fast, and we didn’t really know what was on the market today,” Will explains. “We took our time and really investigated all the options, and we are satisfied that OMET is still the leading solution available – a decision which really pleased our operators, who have been so happy with the original machine that they were not really interested in entertaining the idea of anything but another OMET!
”As well as the performance of the original machine, the long and successful relationship we have enjoyed with Currie Group since that first purchase in 2010, made this latest investment decision an easy one,” Will admits. “At a time when many vendors are cutting back dramatically on their service operations, Currie Group continues to invest in engineers and technical support and that’s critical for us,” he says. “Any machine will break down from time to time, but downtime hurts, so you need to know you can get problems sorted, fast. That’s the confidence we have in dealing with Currie Group. When we need them, they’re there.”
The new OMET XFLEX X6.0 530, together with an additional die-cutter to support the new installation, is expected to be installed in the company’s Brookvale, Sydney, headquarters before the end of 2024.
Currie Group is the ANZ distributor for OMET.
Caption:
Wayne Quayle, Currie Group; Will Tompson, The Van Dyke Press; Claudio Piredda from OMET; and Mark Daws, Currie Group with the OMET XFLEX X6.0 530