New Investment! Auto Robotic Line, AutoCON. CHALLENGES IN PACKAGING OFFICIAL NEWS REPORT OCTOBER 2014

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1 CHALLENGES IN PACKAGING OFFICIAL NEWS REPORT OCTOBER 2014 New Investment! Auto Robotic Line, AutoCON. Basic Prepress Guidelines for Rotogravure Flexible Packaging Printing Technology. Portion Packing. Thickness and Barriers.

2 PRODUCTION OF ROTOGRAVURE CYLINDERS 01 New Investment! Production of Rotogravure Cylinders Auto Robotic Line, AutoCON. Driven by our business strategy for providing high quality products and services, we have proceeded in a new investment of rotogravure cylinder engraving line. The size of this investment reaches and is in operation since the end of August We have invested in state- of- the- art equipment available for the sector of rotogravure cylinder engraving production. This is a step further of our company s specialization and provides us the ability of offering our customers instant service and top quality printing results. The line s installation was successfully completed in a specially formed and designed hall of our newest production facility, located in Stadiou Street at Kalohori - Thessaloniki. This new investment, not only insures a fully in-house control of the delicate preprint procedure, provides us flexibility and printing quality amelioration, but also improves our total performance as a flexible packaging converter. Specifically, our new Auto Robotic line AutoCon has the ability of producing 30 rotogravure cylinders per day, covering every client demand in product dimensions and engraving quality. The whole production procedure is fully automated through a specialized software and robotic system, limiting human interference at minimum. Worthily of remarking is also the fact that this rotogravure cylinder production line ensures the highest available security levels and ergonomics, and clearly meets all relevant requirements of the European legislation. Last but not least, special attention was paid in order to minimize as much as possible the CO2 emissions at the atmosphere, including the proper management of the waste occurring from the procedure of cylinders production.

3 PRODUCTION OF ROTOGRAVURE CYLINDERS 02 Totally, our new engraving rotogravure cylinder production line, is consisted, between others, of:

4 BASIC PREPRESS GUIDELINES 03 Basic Prepress Guidelines for Rotogravure Flexible Packaging Printing Technology Printing technology for flexible packaging materials has evolved significantly the past few years. Based on the required material quantity needed each time, customers can choose between several ways to print their packaging materials. There is digital printing, offset printing, flexographic printing, rotogravure printing etc. Most common and competitive printing ways for flexible packaging materials are flexography and rotogravure. In our company, we have the ability of providing flexible packaging materials printed in both these ways. A general rule for choosing the correct printing technology is based on the quantity of the order. Small to medium print runs are usually printed in flexography while on the contrary medium to long print runs are printed in rotogravure. Here in A. Hatzopoulos SA, we are committed in providing high level services and dedicated to maintain and expand our capabilities and expertise in order to meet the ever-diversifying needs of customers. So in order to reassure the best printing results in every rotogravure print run, we are applying the strictest quality control specifications even from preprint stage. Our prepress team is responsible, among others, for transforming the artworks provided by customers in printable version using specialized software. This process includes the color separation based on specifications and issuing and sending the digital print proof. After final approval from the customers, we proceed in cylinder engraving and final production. This procedure makes each artwork perfectly printable, reassuring a high quality printing result. Specifically, some specifications that each artwork needs to meet for a successful rotogravure printing process are the following: colors per artwork. necessary so the packaging will have a readable barcode and no problems to occur when final product enters the market. color registration. result does not contain shadows and gaps. Taking all the above into consideration, when it comes to the question if there are any limitations in rotogravure printing tech, the answer is NO. Meeting only some key tips will provide us an excellent production. On our next newsletter, read, prepress guidelines for flexography.

5 PORTION PACKAGING 04 PORTION PACKAGING Modern researches show that the flexible packaging market in Europe and USA is growing at a rate of around 4-6% per annum. The growth rate does seem to be due to, among others, the increasing demand for food in portion packaging, which offer ease of use, ease of transport and storage, thus gaining every day more and more consumers. Portion packaging has a further advantage. Allow the necessary amount of food consumption (or the use of a specific quantity of a cosmetic product or detergent), thus avoiding wastage. In parallel it is enhancing the environmental profile of this packaging format. In Hatzopoulos Company we have developed a range of products suitable for packaging in portions, such as sticks, sachets & pots. Packaging materials for these applications incorporate many technologies, allowing food producers to provide high added value to their products and consumers to enjoy ease of use. Materials for sticks that combine easy opening and resistance to aggressive goods, laminates for sachets for applying laser cut for easy and straight tearing, and without laser scoring, suitable for magazine distribution, lid films for pots suitable for containers such as PP, PET, PS, PVC, etc., with normal welding, or with easy opening.

6 THICKNESS AND BARRIERS 05 OXYGEN ODOURS OUTER LAYER EVOH SEALING LAYER ATMOSPHERE FLAVOUR CO 1 Food producers are targeting to provide the best regarding food quality products, to the maximum possible shelf-life. Flexible packaging plays a key role to this, by providing the necessary stability to the food-stuff and the corresponding barrier properties. In parallel, the trend to reduce plies to multi-layer laminates, and thus the thickness of the materials in use, produce a very challenging combination, Hatzopoulos R&D is working several years now. Solutions which include removing materials layers, maintaining the barrier properties of the laminates, are already exists for several market segments. For example, for dried soups (and in general de-hydrated foods, produced in sachet-type pack format), the triplex PET or Paper + ALU + PE, can be replaced, by an ultra-high barrier alu-foil free combination PET or Paper + OPP white/opaque/met. Powdered foods which were packed in a PET + OPPbarrier + PE structure can be produced in double layer laminates like PET + PE-EVOH. Coffee is a very sensitive food, so usually an alu-foil structure is needed. However coffee beans could be very successfully packed into a double layer PET + PE-EVOH laminate, by choosing the correct PE thickness and recipe. Our R&D department will be happy to assist to any relevant inquiry. THICKNESS AND BARRIERS

7 HEADOFFICE: 162, 26th October str., Thessaloniki, MACEDONIA, HELLAS Tel: Fax: E - mail: sales@hatzopoulos.gr KALOHORI FACTORY 1: 19, Arkadiou str., Kalohori, Thessaloniki, MACEDONIA, HELLAS Tel: FAX: KALOHORI FACTORY 2: 21, Stadiou str., Kalohori, Thessaloniki, MACEDONIA, HELLAS Tel: FAX: BELGIUM - THE NETHERLANDS: Hatzopoulos Benelux Mr. Manolis Alexandrou Mr. Michael Tzintzoglou Silodam AS Amsterdam - The Netherlands Tel: +31 (0) Mob:+31 (0) alexandrou_m@hatzopoulos.gr Michael@hatzopoulos.gr UNITED KINGDOM & IRELAND: Hatzopoulos UK & Ireland Dr. Eleftherios Kassianidis 52 Nightingale House Ockbrook Drive Nottingham NG3 6AT UK Tel: +44 (0) Mob: +44 (0) uk_ireland@hatzopoulos.co.uk kassianidis@hatzopoulos.co.uk BULGARIA: Mr. Christo Varushev Ul. Dr. Valkovich 16, 4000 Plovdiv, Bulgaria Tel/Fax: Mob: bulgaria@hatzopoulos.gr SERBIA: ΙBG d.o.o. Ms Jelena Boskovic Zanke Stokic 27a, Beograd, Serbia Tel: Fax: office@ibg.rs FRANCE: Hatzopoulos France Mr Arys Tsobanopoulos 5 Rue Léonard de Vinci, Quesnoy-sur-Deûle Tel : +33 (0) Fax : +33 (0) Mobile : +33 (0) arys.hermys@hatzopoulos.fr