Flexographic Printing Press Setup: Uteco Coral 675 

Place I worked at had a W & H Astra and one of these Utecos, it aws identical to this so this brought bcak memories. Back in about 2004-06 I worked as the ink maker for three shifts but as I was an offset printer they were training me up to help out. I was sick of running presses so started colour matching for Flint Ink and then I found myself as an assistant more often than not when the assistant didn't show up. I dont miss that stuff at all.

Agreed. I run a 10 color bobst. Leaks ink but prints nice.

@@brewmaster0507 we were looking at Bobst since we decommissioned the old Uteco 8 colour. Decided to go with getting a W&H Novoflex due in February. Looks fancy. We also have an aging PCMC Avanti 8 colour and a Comexi 8 colour. Yes the Comexi is leaky too mainly from the chamber seals no matter what we’ve tried to fix the issues. Lucky I seldom run that press hehe.

Thanks Corey, it’s definitely a back to basics printing press, a lot of fun to run! For 1999 made uteco it’s in great condition. . . I miss gearless, you miss geared, love it 🤣

They tore out 2 of them and junked them where I work. Too bad because they still ran.

@@brewmaster0507 very sad, lots of spear parts for other companies in the bin 😢

​@@markturton76I absolutely agree. Press still ran good.

When we were just starting (2000) with an old PCMC 6 colour made in 1982. Oil would visibly leak out of the thing so bad. I started there as an offsider and learned to print on that and didn’t know any better. It was great to learn on though only because it makes you appreciate the advancements we have now.

Thanks Ollie, the press was a mess when we first got it, but over the last 9yrs I’ve got it looking and running pretty good 😃

@@markturton76 A clean press is the first sign of a diseased mind 😂

I’m glad you enjoyed. 80% of presses are of this age and older around the world bro. They make more money than new presses because you aren’t paying millions of dollars. At a million dollars a colour for a new good quality press, that’s a lot of printing to break even. We run short 5000-50,00mts jobs (1 to 6 colours). New presses can’t do these jobs and make money. There is still a need for the old printing presses, and always will be. Plus they are way more fun the set up and run. Enjoy the new stuff tho 🤙🏼

@@markturton76 Hi Mark. Sorry if i might have sounded rude or something. English is my 4th language so sometimes something that i mean comes across not like i intended :D But seriously i am shocked that those old machines are still in use. I am from poor Poland and 12 years ago when i started as a flexo printer i used to work on 3 old Windmöller & Hölscher machines made in the 80s and a even older Comexi press. We had also a Fischer & Krecke from the 90s and a W&H Soloflex made in 2000. All those machines were with gears. 3 were 6 color and 3 were 8 color machines. After 1 year working there our boss got a brand new 10 color gearless W&H Miraflex for around 2 million USD. From that point we started to get rid of the old machines and got every two years a new Press. One year we even got 3 new presses cuz the new machines made so much money. Now we have 6 Windmöller & Hölscher Miraflex (one is 8 color the rest is 10 color) And 2x Soma Optima (8 color). This is why im shocked because if poor Poland expands with new machines then rich USA or UK should have even better machines (that is my logic of thinking). I have to disagree with your statement that new presses cant make money with short runs. We specialize in short runs. Starting with 100 kg jobs (even 10 color sometimes). Those new presses (especially soma optima) are made for short jobs. changing 8 sleeves takes 5 minutes and the machine does a automatic wash up so you can put a new color inside in no time. we do 1800 tones of paper and 900 jobs a month. Look up on youtube "New OPTIMA at K SHOW - drinking coffee during changeover!" i work on this press and i go to work with a smile on my face. Its so much fun to work on the new machines.

@@markturton76 With such short runs like that (5000 - 50,000m isn't a lot of film) how much time do you get for your set-ups? Have you developed any tricks to getting set up faster? Does your company give hard, set targets to be hit?

@@markturton76 hello sir my name Manish. There is any vacancies in flexo printing.

@@markturton76 this same machine I operate 4 years sharjah UAE

Put up a video, I’d love to see it… I also run a W&H Built in 1969, I’ll have a video up soon 👍🏼

Good luck at the new career! I run one of the newer models, the ONYX. Much simpler setup than this, but all the same concepts.

Also just saw your turn bar video. I’ve used those on the roto’s and neilpeters. The aquaflexes I can reverse the gear box and web it to where it goes basically inwards on the impression roller instead of outwards. Again, printing is a real trip.

We have process aniloxes where you can print up to 75DPC which gives an average process print, but most of our work here is simple 3-6 colour line and solid work… We do the stuff the bigger companies don’t want to do. Yes it’s old school blade technology using solvent based inks, but it works, with super fast washups and job change times. The smell isn’t to bad, but our factory has massive doors both ends to.

Thank you Jason 👍🏼

Hi Naimur, they are a good press (electronically not so good), but nice to run… make sure everything is well oiled and turns freely before any major run speed with it sitting for 5yrs. Enjoy 😉

Thanks Sonaji, I’m glad you liked it 👍🏼

Hi Jason, the job running here on my setup video is a end seal lay flat tube bag job. The film needs to be super strong on the sides due to the pressure of the bubble wrap put inside the bag. That’s why we do this job as a end seal bag (low pressure on the bottom seal). Our bag machines here also don’t have hot knives to slit and seal 2 or 3 prints across. I hope this makes sense and I’ve explained myself well. Have a look at my slitting video where we do print two across and slit (it’s at the end of the short video). My press won’t slit three across due to rewind issues. I’ll do a video on our bag machines and extruders sometime soon to 👍🏼

We brought this machine for $150,000 Australian dollars and the printing press was around 11 years old. New it was around $1,000,000 AU It was built in 1999. I hope this helps 😃

Hi Jonathan, we use Lohmann Tape (DuploFLEX 5.4 Grip and 5.4 EBX)… We use the hard tape because we mainly print solid and line work. This tape will do screen work up to 70Line Screen. I hope this helps 👍🏻

Email Uteco in Italy 🇮🇹

That’s a difficult question to answer. The more colours running the harder it gets, and with colours over printing each. Hot humid weather is hard. Process printing is harder than line work. Different printing press, some are a lot easier than others. So it can range from 1 all the way to 10, and with no experience easy jobs are probably doable but hard jobs will be almost impossible. I hope that helps 👍🏻

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The web width is 1250mm and is printable to 1200mm printing one side and up to 6 colours. It can also print two sides in register with a maximum web width of 500mm using the turner-bar, and up to 6 colours again. The ink recirculates all the time to feed the chamber and keep a constant viscosity. It’s a nice press to run for its age 👍🏼

@@markturton76 That's awesome :) Both my boss and I are self-taught printers, so I try to educate myself by watching RU-vid videos for tips and tricks. I'd love to see you put out more videos like this one, it's awesome and engaging!

Anytime Cory, if you need advice or a hand, I’m happy to help. Just send me a email : markturton76@gmail.com ... just add PRINTING in the subject line 👍🏼 And I’m making a new video at the moment, it’s a reverse printing video, it should be up on RU-vid today 😃