Gidue provided the perfect complementary experience to drupa by staging at an Open House dedicated to the event. The company’s Florence factory has been busy for 15 days, accommodating converters who extended their trip to drupa in Dusseldorf and visited Gidue’s manufacturing plant in Italy. The Open House proved very popular, with Gidue securing a number of sales at the event, building on its strong sales growth during 2012.
Almost 60 printing companies from five continents travelled through Europe to see Gidue’s new product range. Federico d’Annunzio, MD, comments: “We’d like to thank all the converters who spent their precious time travelling to Florence. The ‘drupa’ Open House was an excellent opportunity to meet with our loyal customer base, and it gave us the chance to introduce our technologies to several converters who we met for the first time.”
Visitors to Gidue’s manufacturing plant were given access to mechanical, electrical and software departments, affording them a hands-on experience of GIDUE’s lean manufacturing in action. Each visitor was offered a demonstration of the full GIDUE product range - the new MX entry-level press for labels; the flexible M1 Plus for labels and packaging; the advanced M3 for multiple substrates; the ‘futuristic’ M5 Digital Flexo; and the latest M5 630 mid web UV flexo press for food packaging, including the SL in-line solventless laminator, which was being showcased to the market for the first time.
During the Open House, customers could also ‘live’ test the innovative performance of the M5 Digital Flexo line, which enables fully automatic ‘digital’ print pressure and register set-up, and less than 20m waste. Several demonstrations were run with converters own plates, so they could verify the consistent ‘digital’ performance on the new M5 press line.
Tests were run without prior preparation – again so visitors could verify the automated operations of the M5 Digital Flexo technology and the reduction in waste it delivers.
Different substrates were converted during the ‘live’ tests to produce labels, shrink sleeves, wrap-around labels, flexible packaging, laminated tubes, pharma alufoil (on the new three-color M5-P for alufoil), and yoghurt lids.
The Open House proved very successful. A number of sales were concluded at the event, with machines to be delivered in 2012 to customers operating in the labels and packaging industries.
Ing. Matteo Cardinotti, Chief of R&D, concludes: “The Open House surpassed our expectations. The Gidue team created a fantastic atmosphere, and visitors welcomed the opportunity to see our latest innovations in action. Our customers confirmed that Gidue Digital Flexo delivers what their businesses need – full automation for short-runs, and ‘digital’-controlled quality.”
