BHS Corrugated en Screen announce partnership

BHS Corrugated Maschinen – und Anlagenbau GmbH and SCREEN Graphic and Precision Solutions Co. Ltd. announce at an exclusive partnership to develop the BHS Corrugated Inline Digital Printing Solution for corrugated box plants.

A new company – SCREEN GP IJC Ltd – has been established to develop the Print Engine technology which will be integrated into a BHS Corrugated Inline Digital Print Solution. It is based close to SCREEN GP subsidiary company Inca Digital’s manufacturing facility in the UK.

With an estimated turnover of €450 million in 2016, BHS Corrugated is the leading supplier of corrugators with 50% share of the global market.  SCREEN GP has considerable experience in colour imaging and inkjet technology development, specifically for the Truepress Jet range of digital presses for transpromo, direct mail and label print production. Inca Digital is a centre of excellence, well known as the pioneer of wide-format flatbed inkjet printing and manufacturer of the high-productivity Inca Onset UV printer. The new company will integrate the core competencies and expertise of all three in inkjet, engineering, web transport and manufacturing to develop the new industrial inline Print Engine which will be integrated into a BHS Corrugated Inline Digital Printing Solution. The first alpha installation is planned at a customer site in 2018.

Unlike other digital print solutions on the market, the BHS Corrugated Inline Digital Printing Solution will be the only reel-to-printed sheet in real time process that is an integral part of the corrugated board manufacturing process (where printed sheets are stacked in the Stacker) The single-pass, aqueous inkjet system will print onto widths up to 2.8m wide at speeds of up to 300m/minute. It will be available as an option for new BHS Corrugators, or as upgrade to existing installations. Integrating digital printing inline on the corrugator is capable of generating two main value propositions: quick turnaround to enable fast and flexible order processing and saving on total cost of ownership.

Global production of corrugated board is predicted to exceed 260 billion square metres by 2020, growing at a rate of about 5% p.a. (ICCA Corrugated Statistics). The strong cost and environmental advantages of producing smaller volumes of corrugated board quickly and on-demand is driving the development of specialist digital printing systems. A high-speed inline, inkjet print process is able to meet those market needs.

 “We are delighted to forge this cooperation with BHS,” says Tsuneo Baba, President, SCREEN GP. “By combining our digital printing technologies with BHS’s equally advanced technologies we aim to trigger major innovation in the corrugated industry.”

Christian Engel, CEO, BHS Corrugated, says, “SCREEN GP is a technology leader in digital print in a variety of markets and our partnership will enable us to be well prepared for the digital decade that the corrugated industry is entering and one that will bring a revolution of print, processes and machinery layout in box plants. BHS Corrugated focuses on providing high-end and high-speed solutions and I am convinced that the integration of Digital Print – inline – during the corrugating process is the superior option which will deliver significant benefits to our customers. The Beta machine will be launched in 2019.”