The Austrian machine manufacturer J. Zimmer Maschinenbau GmbH, known as Zimmer Austria, has been successful for many years in delivering special screen printing and coating machines for the textile and technical textiles industries, for non-wovens, paper and films. This experience tipped the scales when Zimmer competed for an extremely interesting order, which is the subject of this report.
Gert Scheriau, product manager of Zimmer Austria in Klagenfurt, explains: “Some 15 months ago, our new customer, a renowned aircraft manufacturer from North America, got in contact with Zimmer Austria to discuss coating and printing on special films with non-standard inks. In our Zimmer Technology Centre we carried out test runs which generated excellent results. The customer was impressed by the film handling and by the achieved printing results.
The applied technologies included a newly developed rotary screen unit with intermitting printing capability. This new technology enables the customer to print new designs, which are beyond the standard repeat lengths. Zimmer intermitting technology has already been applied successfully for many years in a similar technical version for textile printing. Our customer took the opportunity to examine this system at a local textile printing company.”
Horst Ros, sales manager at Zimmer Austria in Klagenfurt, reports on the development of the project: “After the successful test runs at our Technology Centre, an overall line concept with a maximum working width of 1700mm was created. After all details had been defined together with the customer, the order was placed in November 2008. After a construction and assembly time of only six months, the line has been installed and started up at Zimmer for the technical acceptance tests by the customer. In August 2009, the complete line was thoroughly tested together with the customer under production conditions. The customer was highly satisfied and accepted the system. The complete line will be delivered in November and installed at the customer’s facility in January 2010. By the end of February 2010, the finishing of high-tech films is scheduled to start.”
Screen printing features
The Magnoroll film printing line is a typical special purpose machine. The film is being printed with the Zimmer Magnet roller system proved for decades. It is then dried, wound up and then rewound to the unwinder using a sophisticated technical solution. Immediately afterwards the next layer of ink is applied. Depending on the individual design, this process may be repeated several times.
The hot air jet dryer developed and manufactured by Zimmer offers a triple film passing through the dryer, thus reducing the overall line length to a mere 28m at a constant drying capacity.
Technical competence
“The complete line control complying with the customer’s special requirements has been developed and programmed by us as well,” Scheriau adds. “When integrating standard components, Zimmer only selects renowned suppliers like Lenze, Siemens, Vetaphone and Erhardt & Leimer in order to match our own high quality standards. This way the customer enjoys Zimmer’s complete delivery – everything out of one hand!” as Scheriau points out. Another important aspect for awarding the contract was the fact that Zimmer runs a sales and service subsidiary in the United States for many decades.
Water-based colours
Water-based colours like pigment and non-standard inks may be processed on the Magnoroll mesh printing system. Special pumps convey the inks into the screens where a supply pipe with squeegee distributes the inks evenly. “With this film printing system Zimmer customers enjoy new possibilities of printing, coating or finishing films of various qualities”, Ros explains.
Background:
J. Zimmer Maschinenbau is a manufacturer with a tradition of more than 100 years. Zimmer delivers all around the globe and is supported by representatives in many countries. The company has 260 employees working in two plants in Klagenfurt (Carinthia) and Kufstein (Tyrol), both in Austria. While Zimmer Klagenfurt
is the competence centre for screen printing machines and coating systems, Zimmer Kufstein focuses on digital printing on textiles and carpets.
It is the company’s philosophy to be the “competent partner with comprehensive solutions for the customer.” Most important components and machine parts are manufactured in-house at their own plants.
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