Foiled again with UK's first Hapa 530 laser engraver

The first Hapa 530 laser engraver in the UK has been installed by Romaco UK at the Macclesfield site of AstraZeneca. The unit is used to produce flexographic print mats for on-line printers installed on a number of blister lines at the site.

The Hapa 500 series of laser engravers offers GMP-compliant, user-friendly computer-to-plate technology, facilitating just-in-time packaging materials management. A specially developed software interface called Place-It can take artwork from any standard desktop computer software and transmit it directly to the engraver via secure digital data transfer. Variable data can be added without changing the master artwork to maximise the life of engraved mats.

The Hapa 530 installed by AstraZeneca is the most powerful system in the range, with a maximum speed of 6mm/min (translating to a maximum area of 30.6cm²/min) at 600 dpi, thanks to a 125W laser. The resolution can be adjusted as required, up to a maximum of 2000 dpi, and print mats with dimensions up to 510x700mm can be engraved.

Since introducing on-line printing, AstraZeneca has cut costs and improved turnaround times. The Hapa 530 speeds up the turnaround time for the production of print mats: less than an hour, compared with 24 hours from outside suppliers. According to operations manager Ged Ramsden, this gives enormous flexibility in managing production requirements, without reliance on third parties. The cost of producing a mat in-house is also significantly lower.