Zircon invests in Vetaphone

Established in 2007 by owner and managing director Sanjeev Sondhi, the company, which employs 450 people across five sites, produces more than 40 million square metres of printed material each year. The markets supplied include food and beverage, healthcare, industrial, and pharmaceutical sectors, with a range of products from labels and flexible packaging to anti-counterfeiting and brand authentication items, as well as shrink sleeves, pouches, and blister packs.

With a high-quality portfolio of international brand owners to service, Zircon prides itself on its end-to-end support from R&D through to delivery of the finished product. 

Sondhi said, “We have stringent quality and delivery processes in place to ensure our products can be put straight onto our customers’ production lines at the time requested – what’s more, we can automate production for a seamless solution.”

Working typically with PE and aluminium foil, corona treatment was always going to be required to ensure good ink adhesion. Two of the Mark Andy presses are fitted with Vetaphone corona technology as well as the Italian-manufactured Omet VaryFlex 430 flexo press that is configured to some proprietary web passes and attachments to meet Zircon’s requirements. Fitted with automatic registration control and the facility to print back and front in a single pass, the Omet is capable of printing substrates from 12-micron film to 600-micron board.

As Mark Andy and Omet are both leading OEM customers of Vetaphone, the Danish company’s corona technology was an easy choice.  The Mark Andy presses are fitted with VE1A-A corona treaters with four ceramic electrodes in their removable cartridges.  Each has an iCorona-1UL generator, one with 1.5kW power, the other with 2kW. The Omet has two VE1A-A treaters with four ceramic electrodes and 2kW iCorona generators.

“We were aware of other options for surface treatment but decided to go with Vetaphone. They invented and have pioneered corona treatment and came highly recommended as a trusted and reliable brand,” said Sondhi, who is looking to grow his business in the aluminium packaging, screen printing and stand-up pouch markets, where the non-absorbent substrates will all need surface treatment.

With Diageo, Yamaha, and Pernod Ricard among its 300 customers, Sondhi knows that only state-of-the-art technology will allow him to deliver the quality demanded.  “I am satisfied with the Omet/Vetaphone combination. It allows our team of skilled professionals to offer customers what they want, when they want it, and at a quality and price that meet their expectations.”

With 7 in 10 consumers admitting that packaging influences their purchasing decision there is a premium on getting it right the first time, every time.