Fischer & krecke at the fore

Bielefeld based Fischer & Krecke is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of CI flexo presses for printing flexible packaging, linerboard, and paperboard. Managing director Andreas Kückelmann made time during his company’s busy open house event to tell Converting Today: “Business is good and there is real potential for future growth.

“The flexo market is split for us,” he continued. “One side is wide web, high speed presses. There the speed requirement just keeps going up for long run users. They want higher speeds and wider widths with in-line lamination and other capabilities, to increase their productivity and competitiveness. Most of these presses are of 1,300-2,800mm width, and we are flexible enough to be able to build five to six machines of widths of two metres and more each year,” he said.

“The other direction for us is 1,300mm width presses for high print quality and very quick change-over with low waste - for up to 15 jobs a day. This is the market for our 6S eight colour press. The pre-set and pre-register devices help to reduce waste. Customers also want the machine to be very operator friendly,” he added.

F&K’s Flexpress series includes the Flexpress 16S – the company’s most successful machine, and claimed to be one of the world’s best selling servo driven CI flexo presses. While the 16S is designed for the small and medium web range, the later 26S, 36S, and 96S models cover the complete web range up to and including preprinted linerboard applications.

No less than 90 per cent of the company’s production is exported. “Our main market is North America – it accounts for up to 50 per cent of our sales,” Andreas Kückelmann affirmed. “The US market appreciates the very high quality of our machines. Since the Flexpress was introduced in 2000, we have seen real growth in our US market share. Since drupa 2000, we have installed 170 presses worldwide.”

The open house event featured demonstrations of the Flexpress 6S and 16S-10 models, and introduced a new automatic impression setting system developed in co-operation with AVT. It uses the Israeli company’s Pressco camera system to control the cyclinder pressure and registration, set the plate cylinder, and set the anilox cylinder - all “with 15 micron precision”. It works on all print stations simultaneously, saving waste. The demo Converting Today watched achieved full control with 360m of waste material on a web running at 70m/min. AVT says the amount will vary according to the speed. Also featured was F&K’s Access system, which is said to provide easy access to any print unit while the machine is running.

The F&K group also includes the Kochsiek operation specializing in gravure presses for liquid packaging and décor printing. He commented: “Both these are niche markets. Our strategy is about implementing innovations to the competitive advantage of our clients.”

Considering the future, he stated: “We don’t foresee any major changes in the market. There will be the continuing need to keep costs down and to find innovations to give customers advantages. The East European market offers a lot of potential – with the local companies, as well as the western companies moving there.”