|
FULL STORY
With a rise in demand for diversity and higher security processes, South African based Morvest Mithratech saw an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage with the recent installation of a high specification Edale Gamma configured for scratch card production.
From left: Neville Lewis, production operations manager; Faheem Varachia, managing executive of Morvest Mithratech; alongside Floors Coetzee of Ferrostaal Equipment Solutions, Edale's South African representative.
The ISO 9001:2008 approved company, Morvest Mithratech, was founded in 2005 and is a subsidiary of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed Morvest Business Group. ‘The fact that we are ISO accredited gives our customers peace of mind that the products we produce, and the procedures we are following are of world class standard,’ said Faheem Varachia, managing executive, Morvest Mithratech.
Morvest Mithratech's core business is offering secure print solutions for the telecommunications, banking and hospitality industries, and the company is steadily growing into a leader in the field of security products. ‘The scratch card industry is a very niche and challenging market, but we have grown a very strong footprint in this market, specifically in Africa,’ continued Varachia.
Because of the company's strong reputation within South Africa and surrounding areas, Morvest's decision to purchase the eight-colour Edale Gamma 430 line was a natural progression in growing the business. Varachia continued, ‘The ability for all printing and finishing operations to be produced in one operation gives us a tremendous technical advantage and commercial competitive edge in the market. We are now in a position to look for additional business in the same field as well as expansion into other areas.’
Morvest Mithratech's primary business is the production of recharge voucher solutions; including scratch off telecom recharge cards, pre-paid electricity solutions and novelty scratch cards. Further to this, with the introduction of the Gamma, they will now look to enhance their PIN mailer offerings and diversify into niche packaging solutions.
The fully servo driven Edale Gamma boasts web widths of 430mm or 510mm (Morvest opted for 430mm wide) and is capable of printing a variety of substrates from 12 micron unsupported film up to 600 micron carton board- at speeds of up to 200m/min; and has the capability to produce all formats of scratch card from single CR80 pin to multi pin cards and sheets.
Morvest's machine includes a large unwind with web cleaning, insetting for pre-printed webs, multiple flexo print stations with IR/Air and UV drying and combination drying for conventional printing, varnishing, scratch off ink printing, a personalisation unit with Domino inkjet heads as well as hot foiling, die cutting, perforating and sheeting finishing stations with reel to reel or reel to finished sheet production.
Varachia added, ‘We chose to work with UK based Edale as we wanted complete control over the value chain and in doing so, offer the best quality and most cost efficient solutions. We chose the 430mm wide Edale Gamma for many reasons, but the quality of print it produces, as well as quality of design and engineering is second to none, the speed, volumes it can produce and overall versatility of the press stood out’.
The Gamma combines the finest print quality with innovative features ensuring one minute print station changeovers, minimum downtime and minimum wastage. It has servo drives on each print head, providing pre-register, auto-register and print length control features, whilst incorporating graphic printing, personalisation, scratch off application, verification and finishing into a single process.
Said James Boughton, managing director of Edale, ‘We were delighted to receive the order from Morvest Mithratech for the single pass scratch card line. It is one of the biggest presses we have ever worked on and the press showcases some fantastic next generation technology. By bringing their printing in-house, the Edale Gamma can reduce the number of production machines meaning less operations, less waste, less work in progress, man power and floor space.’
Productivity and flexibility are achieved by combining 'traditional' multi-stage manufacturing processes - printing, personalising, verifying, scratch printing and finishing - into a single modular machine solution capable of manufacturing all conceivable formats of single and multi-pin cards. Such a solution ensures that telecom cards are produced with the lowest possible cost per pin, but also to the highest quality in terms of print whilst importantly meeting the required security demanded by telecom companies. With the demanding nature of today's modern world, production output is key - the Edale Gamma 430 is capable of producing up to 200,000 finished ISO products per hour or up to 1,000,000 pins per hour.
Varachia concluded, ‘The support that we have received from Edale so far has been of the highest standard - and we look forward to building a long term relationship in the future.’
Edale's offering is a 'turnkey' solution that not only provides the capital equipment, but also a high level of consultative support, training and consumables. Edale's single pass telecom recharge card and personalisation machine solution has re-written the rules in terms of cost per pin and the variety of formats achievable from a single machine, and will make your business one of the most efficient and versatile in the industry.
For more information, visit: www.edale.com. In Southern Africa, consult Ferrostaal Equipment Solutions: www.ferrostaal.com
© Graphic Repro On-line, 9 January 2013.
|
