Flexible Dies with an Environmental Edge

With 24 hour production running at our Coalville factory Kocher+Beck is achieving ever faster turn-round to meet the demands of our customers.

That puts massive pressure on the whole factory, but it does not exclude taking our environmental responsibilities very seriously.

Making Flexible Dies

Making flexible dies for envelope, label and commercial printers with either narrow web or sheet-fed presses is a complex, intricate process. Few people outside this somewhat niche industry appreciate the many specialist processes required to produce a die. It culminates with precision CNC milling, surface grinding and quality checks before testing, packing and distribution.

At Kocher+Beck, once we’ve produced the layout for the cutting, crease or perforation lines we use computer-to-plate technology to image the full thickness die plate material. This has to be chemically etched to reveal the raised cutting profile using a solution of Ferric Chloride. Ferric Chloride is an acidic, corrosive solution, but to put it into perspective it is often used as a coagulant in water treatment plants filtering contaminants from water to make it fit for human consumption. At Kocher+Beck we continuously regenerate ferric chloride through our own in-house regeneration facility.

A chlorine replenishing system tops up the ferric chloride when necessary so we not only minimise the amount we use but it has also allowed us to cut our energy usage from a massive 65kW an hour to just 3kW an hour for this process. This reduction in energy has been so impressive all of Kocher+Beck’s production plants in Germany, the USA and Russia use the same replenishment system and are therefore equally environmentally conscious.

Kocher+Beck’s management philosophy endorses ‘eco-efficiency’ wherever it can – a termcoined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution.In other words producing more with less.

Our largest factory near Stuttgart has invested in a large scale solar energy system. It’s brought amazing environmental savings and green energy is something that the factory in Coalville, Leicestershire is considering. In the UK we could certainly benefit from more sun on occasions, but because we get our fair share of rain, we’re also assessing the possibility of capturing rainwater from our 1,500 sq metre roof for use in the die-making process.

We aim to further improve our eco-efficiency and are well on our way to meeting many of the critical aspects such as reduced energy dependency, reduced dispersion of any toxic substances, improved recyclability, etc.

The print industry constantly gets beaten up about waste and energy usage, but here at Kocher+Beck we pride ourselves on helping the environment as much as we can.