Ukrainian printing company
Ukraine (pop. 48 million) used to be the most important economic component of the former Soviet Union. Its heavy industry produced a wide variety of equipment from intercontinental ballistic missiles to rolling mills and own brands of cars and trucks. After gaining independence in 1991 the country had lost about three quarters of energy sources, especially natural gas, located mostly in Russia. As a result the industrial output fell and at present time is gradually coming back to the pre-Soviet level.
The change to world class quality and performance came with growing access to the world's best equipment. Principal Ukrainian converters like Ukrplastic, the leading flexible packaging producer in the Eastern Europe with $100 million turnover, can afford to run the best modern printing equipment. However, many small struggling companies with limited funding have to choose between second hand "remanufactured" Western made presses and new equipment from Asia, Argentina, Brazil or Czech Republic.
With a 50-yr tradition of graphic technology research as well as building printing equipment, Ukraine still manufactures its own brands of printing presses. 15 years ago, no longer bound by constraints of state-run company, one private manufacturing enterprise decided to strike out on their own. Kievpolygrafmash (KPGM), located in the country's capital, remains the only flexo press manufacturer in the former Soviet Union domain. The other 12 state-owned plants dedicated to production of printing equipment have not survived hard times of "perestroika". In recent years there were attempts to manufacture flexopresses in Russia by Gramex, a former service company, with almost all critical components imported from the West.
KPGM was established by state over 45 years ago as a part of the industry supplying production equipment to a huge Soviet publishing sector. The company is still very active in manufacturing bookbinding and wire-stitching machines for domestic as well as international customers in Eastern Europe and South America. In the early 1990s during ongoing deterioration of manufacturing in Ukraine the company was struggling to stay in business. Its management led by charismatic General Director Volodimir Maksimenko came to a decision to design and build own flexographic machines. KPGM intended to find a suitable niche for its presses in the rapidly growing local packaging market creating enormous demand for decorating equipment.
First machines were simple stack type flexo printers with one to four color stations for corrugated and flexible packages. After that the company moved to central impression design and currently makes four wide web models with 4, 6 and 8 color decks, printing on film up to 1200 mm wide. The top model gear press KIEVFLEX-1000/8 runs at production speed 300 m/min and features modern ink delivery with closed chamber doctor blades, hot air drying system and pneumatic roll chucks. KPGM imports electric control systems from Mitsubishi (Japan) and laser engraved anilox rolls from Zecher GmbH (Germany). These rolls being run with precise gear train assure high quality printing. With the high amount of manual adjustments the press is not in the same league with similar German or Italian machines, however, with the price tag of €300,000, the machine attracts customers in Russia, Belarus, the Baltic Republics and Kazakhstan.
Recently the company released a central impression 8 color 410 mm narrow web press with UV varnish station. The press runs at 250 m/min and features options similar to wide web machines. KPGM had presented this press in September 2007 at Polygraphy'07 show in Kyiv and is going to take it to DRUPA show next year.
Manufacturing decline in Ukraine made local outsourcing difficult. Fortunately, KPGM inherited good machine shop with skilled workers from previous times and had purchased additional precise machine tools to assure self-reliance for mechanical parts (for KIEVFLEX-1000/8 the number of parts goes over 10,000). Several principal parts of a flexo press like castings for the frame side plates and main gear are contracted out to Novokramatorsk Machine Works, one the remaining in good shape giants of the Ukrainian heavy machine industry. Recently, to further ensure self-sufficiency, KPGM designed and built a special machine for grinding central impression drums up to 1800 mm in diameter and 0.02mm of total indicator run out.
There are still many obstacles that limit performance of the company. Due to the high cost of credit in Ukraine (up to 20%), KPGM is trying to control risk by funding only small product batches and introducing new equipment in limited numbers. The company expects to sell its product emphasizing robust performance at competitive price and offers short delivery on customized machines. A slitter-rewinder, recently introduced at €30,000 competes well with Asian or South American made similar machines.
One the largest paper mills in Ukraine, KKBK in Obukhiv, runs the state-of-the-art printing and die-cutting lines from Emba and Miller Martini with the price tag nearly €1 million each. However, recently, the mill purchased DVL-1800, flexo printer/rotary die-cutter made by KPGM (€120,000) to run small batches of corrugated boxes.
Volodimir Maksimenko, a staunch supporter of "orange revolution", believes that Ukraine's emerging market economy should not drive manufacturing
out of the country. While giving a plant tour, he told Flexo&Gravure Int'l, "We know our limitations and build reliable inexpensive flexo presses for customers who have to choose between 5 - 8 years old used W&H model or brand new machine made by Kievpolygrafmash. We are thankful to Soma for leaving its niche segment for us, "jokes Maksimenko (Soma is a flexographic equipment maker from Czech Republic, which is gradually moving to the rank of world's top press builders. Soma had built reliable gear presses for many years).