Edale FL-350 put through its paces, UK customer delighted with investment
Almost ten years to the date that Douglas Storrie Labels Limited installed their first Edale 5 colour Alpha, the company then went on to buy the company’s first ever Edale FL-350 press, championing the UK manufacturing company. This move kept in tradition of founder Douglas Storrie who was infamously proud of his British company with British machinery, offering great quality products and services to the British market.
Over the last few years of global financial difficulty, Douglas Storrie sales increased and a major investment was made into new equipment. In September 2011, the first ever Edale FL-350 8 colour servo press was installed, primarily for the production of self adhesive labels, tickets and tags but with a view to venture into other fields which the press allows; namely flexible packaging. According to Storrie’s Managing Director Nigel Storrie, “it was necessary to invest in expanding production capacities because business with new customers has grown significantly”.
After consideration of many options, and which presses would meet criteria they took a calculated risk in taking Edale’s first ever FL-350, and brought a brand new machine to the UK market, developed and manufactured by the UK’s leading web-fed flexographic printing and converting equipment manufacturer – Edale! Douglas Storrie specifically chose to work closely with Edale to develop the new machine to ensure they created a press which would produce labels, tickets and packaging alongside servo technology to give them the top quality finish that was expected by their customers; combined with high running speeds, fast changeover and reduced cost, which gives Douglas Storrie the competitive edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
Douglas Storrie, having brought the prototype model, were testing the machine with the intention of co- developing the press with Edale; feedback from a real production environment was invaluable in fine tuning the machine and enabled Edale to work on numerous developments to enhance the machines drive system. After a trial period of putting the machine through its paces; Douglas Storrie are now ‘delighted with the performance of new investment’.
Nigel Storrie continues, “The press was installed in September 2011; we felt the press could benefit from a few further developments to get it to an even higher standard” – it wasn’t an issue broaching the subject with Edale as communication with Edale was a daily occurrence whether through the Sales, Designs, Engineering or Customer Service Teams. “Edale worked with us to tweak the finer details which we felt would turn this from a good press to a great press – we now believe we have got one of the best presses on the market, and at a very good competitive price”.
James Boughton, Managing Director of Edale commented “With Edale you get a personal service, with a dedicated customer service team and troubleshooting help desk. We listen to what the market is saying, but more importantly, what our customers want and look to provide a solution, just as we did with Douglas Storrie”.
Off the back of these positive changes, a second machine has also been sold and installed into another UK company. This company, who cannot yet be named, produces medical products and have now brought their print and packaging in-house.
Stuart Robinson, Works/Production Manager of Douglas Storrie says “We have been very impressed with the operator friendly features the FL350 boasts. We are seeing a large increase in the amount of work we are getting out the door and I believe this is all down to the pit stop changeover, ease of setting the machine up with minimum waste, fast running speeds and pre-register system. The FL-350 is printing the highest quality work we’ve ever seen and matching print samples from other print processes which we have not previously been able to achieve. It also gives us the ability and flexibility to print a wide range of substrates and thicknesses enabling us to target different areas of the packaging market.
The Edale FL-350 press brings more machine choice to market, with the flexibility of a broader substrate range and with more options.
Stuart Robinson concludes “Overall the FL350 is a highly versatile machine with many innovative features that we believe will help shape our business over the next year, we are glad we stayed with a flexo machine at this time instead of venturing down the digital route..”
You can visit the FL-350 at Douglas Storrie’s Open Day which is being held on 15 August 2012, with a ‘British Day by the Seaside’ theme. Douglas Storrie will be running three machine demonstrations; a label, film and flexible packaging job. Demonstration times are: 10.30, 12.30, 14.30.
To register your interest, please contact: marketing@edale.com or call +44 (0) 1489 569230.