La Cartonera Lucentina expands offering and boosts output with Kongsberg automation

Investing in quality - for now, and the future

Much more than a simple manufacturer of cardboard packaging, for more than five decades LCL has gone beyond standard formats, meeting any requirement for its customers. From a cardboard box with the appearance of wood to packaging with the feel of an olive tree, the company prides itself on helping customers achieve more than just protective packaging. It provides them with design and printing that delivers packaging that is a key part of the consumer’s experience. “Today's market is constantly changing, and the pandemic has accelerated these changes dramatically,” said Francisco Javier Alba, General Manager of La Cartonera Lucentina. “We know that in order to adapt quickly and effectively to these changes, we have to look for digital solutions that deliver an advantage. Investing is necessary to continue growing and improving, to guarantee our customers an excellent service and the high quality products they have come to expect at all times. This has meant our product portfolio has increased substantially. 

In order to keep growing, every company needs to be accompanied by reliable partners. We consider Kongsberg PCS to be a trustworthy partner that offers different solutions for the challenges we face. 

Speed, agility – and accuracy

The seven-strong team in the digital department at LCL produced almost 800,000m2 of packaging last year. “The forecast for the coming year is to do 50% more digital finishing,” said Francisco. “Since the creation of the digital department in 2020, we had a clear plan that our next step would be to invest in automated finishing to enable us to offer greater speed and agility in processing and delivering jobs. The Kongsberg system allows us to meet that objective.

“The incredible speed and power of the Kongsberg cutting table has helped us to finish the high demand of work that we had. This has meant we are now able to increase the number of small volume and special orders, in terms of format, that we can both take on and finish digitally. Diverting these types of jobs from the conventional workflow makes us more productive in our analogue

production. To give an example, a client asked us for 10 displays to introduce them to a large retailer, and as it was a promotion he was in a bit of a hurry because of the immediate need for those displays.

The files were delivered to us on a Wednesday and the customer received them Friday morning - printed, die-cut and glued. This would not have been possible without our Kongsberg C64.

Improved productivity through automation

Already using the Kongsberg XN44 in its production, when LCL was looking to invest in new technology it looked to the company’s wider portfolio. “We already knew Kongsberg PCS and we knew about the solutions they offer, the tooling options they have and their level of commitment to service,” said Francisco. “The automated input and output means the operator does not need to be watching all the time and can be doing other value-added tasks, and it also opened up many possibilities and improves productivity for us.”

The Kongsberg C Series delivers an iconic performance that is made possible by state-of-the-art engineering and aerospace technology, combining an aluminum composite tabletop, a rack and pinion drive system and dynamic table mapping to deliver the greatest cutting accuracy and consistency. With its high speed (100m/min) and acceleration (1G), the Kongsberg C64 delivers impressive, high quality results and enables fast turnarounds.

“With this new acquisition, we get more flexibility in small quantities, without needing to purchase any dies,” added Francisco. “This makes our response to customer requests more agile and eliminates the need for additional production costs which can sometimes be difficult to justify.“

By diverting volume away from analogue production, we have been able to make our conventional lines more efficient and productive.

 

Optimum tooling and smart automation

The Kongsberg C64 works in combination with a wide variety of optional tool units, with multiple tool options available to maximize productivity and handle whatever materials are being processed.

LCL acquired a comprehensive package that included a Heavy-Duty Tool Unit, which makes it possible to crease, perforate, cut V-notch and straight lines at high speeds with a variety of adapters. Additional tools in the package include the HF VibraCut tool, which with its powerful motor is ideal for cutting heavily recycled board at efficient speeds, and the CorruSpeed tool, developed for cutting corrugated board at high speeds without oscillating. This innovation delivers significant time savings on corrugated materials, even those with recycled content.

The set-up is completed by the Kongsberg Feeder and Stacker, which automates production from pallet to pallet. It guarantees the precision demanded from every run without the need for constant manual adjustments. The Feeder and Stacker enables converters to significantly increase productivity - with its stack height and quick automatic load cycles, it is the optimal solution for short run production of a wide variety of materials. The Underside Camera scans each sheet from below, on the print side, and automatically locates the registration marks, barcodes and the corner of the sheet, saving anything from twenty to thirty minutes on each set up, further boosting productivity.

 

“The entire system delivers an excellent finish and meets our specific demands not only in the manufacturing process but also in other aspects, such as palletizing and logistics,” added Francisco. “Another aspect to highlight is that it makes us significantly faster, more agile and versatile in delivery times - as digital finishing requires little time for a job change, you can offer a service that is tailored to our clients’ requirements.“ 

We are enormously satisfied with our Kongsberg set-up, and I believe Kongsberg PCS will continue to be a good partner for us as we build for the future.

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About The Customer

For almost 60 years, La Cartonera Lucentina (LCL) has built its success on delivering packaging that delivers a combination of technological innovation and product excellence. Headquartered in Lucena , in southern Spain, the company boasts a recently upgraded 32,000m2 facility, equipped with machinery that enables LCL to adapt to the specific needs of its customers and continue its own evolution. When the business was looking to expand its product offering, boost its digital finishing capacity and increase its agility, the Kongsberg C64 with Automated Feeder & Stacker, Dual Heavy-Duty Unit and additional tooling options proved the ideal solution.