NEWS IN SHORT

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IN SHORT

CREATING NEW STANDARDS IN ROTOGRAVURE CYLINDER MANUFACTURING

n 1956 Evangelos Ioannou started his working life in the rotogravure cylinder engraving industry. In 1970 he founded in Athens a small unit for the chemical etching of rotogravure cylinders. Working alone following the latest technological developments and constantly expanding his knowledge leads to continuous improvements in the quality and consistency of the company’s products. In 1990, this continuous improvement leads to growth and expansion and the company relocates to the Industrial area of Inofyta. The company is now second generation and under the direct management of the son of the founder, Mr. Yiannis Ioannou who applying the philosophy of continuous improvement and investment brings to Greece the first electronic engraving installation. Today, ICR-IOANNOU is the largest manufacturer of rotogravure cylinders in Greece and one of the largest suppliers in Europe, North and South America, the Middle East and North Africa. The company produces rotogravure cylinders for all sectors of the print market including, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, FMCG, tobacco and the decorative sector. Carrying on the philosophy of the company founder ICR-IOANNOU constantly strives to answer questions ask by our customer by the constant use of R&D. This R&D has led to the development of the unique patented IMS Aluminum cylinder system. By utilizing aluminum and thermal spray technologies ICR-IOANNOU can offer the printer the following benefits: 1: Due to the speed that Aluminum cylinders can be produced the leadtimes to press can be greatly reduced. This gives the printer using Aluminum cylinders a competitive ad-

vantage over the competition; he can reduce the lead times to the end user from conception of design to print. 2: Due to the reduced logistics cost of the Lightweight Aluminum cylinders it is now possible for the printer to move cylinders to different print locations to meet demand rather than move printed product. 3: The reduced weight and better balance characteristics allow the printers to run the press at higher speeds, while maintaining the highest print quality. Because of the fact that the aluminum does not corrode the cylinder remains in this perfectly balanced state for its production life. 4: Due to the lightweight nature of the cylinders one press operator can manually place the cylinder in the press. This leads to greatly reduced lead times on the press and allows an increased number of cylinder changes during the printing shift. The cylinders comply with all European operator-lifting rules, reducing lost days of production due to handling injuries. 5: Due to the lightweight nature of the cylinders it can reduce the amount of wear on the print press bearing and moving parts, allowing increased periods of time between service interventions, reducing the maintenance cost on the machines while increasing productivity and efficiency of the press. 6: The lightweight nature of the cylinders allows greater flexibility in the warehousing of the cylinders. The warehouse footprint can be reduced due to the fact that we can stack the cylinders higher in a racking system. 7: Due to the environmentally friendly production methods, increased numbers of cylinders in shipments and more efficient printing we substantially reduce the carbon footprint of the cylinder and in-turn the printed product.

In the ICR-IOANNOU customer portfolio there are over 60,000 of these lightweight aluminum cylinders in the daily production workflow. In 2013 ICR-IOANNOU was awarded the much coveted European Rotogravure Association award for innovation. This year the company’s cylinder technology has been recognized by the Gravure Association of the Americas who awarded the company its Golden Cylinder award for innovation. In its efforts to spread this technology ICRIOANNOU also provides semi-finished aluminum rotogravure cylinders to cylinder engraving houses. By applying a policy of total quality to all aspect of cylinder production and customer service and by constant investment in the latest technologies, human potential and internal R&D ICR-IOANNOU has become the internationally recognized multi award winning company we see today. As show of confidence in the future ICR-IOANNOU will be moving into new production facilities in early 2016. This new facility will take full advantage of the latest developments in engineering machinery and thermal spray technology, allowing the company to increase it production capacity by over 50% to meet expanding worldwide customer demand.

ERA AWARD

GAA AWARD

ICR IOANNOU S.A Gravure Cylinders - Flexo Plates Inofyta Industrial Zone, 32011 Inofyta - Viotia, GREECE Tel: (+30) 22620 32484 - Fax: (+30) 22620 31874 sales@icr-ioannou.gr - www.icr-ioannou.gr

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