Interview with Aaron Lessing, Vice President of Business Development at SuperCorrExpo 2024.
I’ve been with Apex North America since it opened in early 2000. I started in 1988 with Pamarco. Today, Apex has five manufacturing plants globally, specializing in the corrugated market.
We work with major OEMs and have recently shifted our focus to corrugated in the US, leveraging our European roots.
Apex International specializes in developing, producing, and distributing anilox sleeves and metering rollers, with capabilities up to 33 inches in diameter and 310 inches in length. Their specialized glue sets enhance productivity and product quality in the corrugated board industry.
We support some of the largest integrated companies in North America. What sets Apex apart is our commitment to OEM specifications.
When we receive an anilox roll or glue set, we compare it to the original OEM drawing and inspect it thoroughly, from drive side to operator side bearing surfaces.
We ensure keyways, threadings, concentricity, and straightness meet OEM specifications before resurfacing the anilox roll. A perfect surface is useless without a good bearing surface.
Next, we strip off the old ceramic and corrosion barrier, then apply a new stainless steel nickel corrosion barrier, crucial for water-based inks. This prevents corrosion, ensuring durability.
Finally, we plasma spray a hard, durable, and consistent ceramic, finishing and honing it to maintain a maximum tier of 0.0005, meeting or exceeding OEM specifications.
Once the roll is finished, it’s ready for laser engraving. We offer various engravings for corrugated applications, including the common 60-degree hex (six-sided cell) and the elongated long cell.
The long cell is great for overall coverage but not ideal for tight reverses or fine type. Our patented Apex GTT engraving provides superior results.
You can show me something.
This sample was done with one printing station, not two or three. It features a B flute with typical Gcma ink, showing a solid area, positive and negative barcodes, QR codes, lines, and screens fading to nothing. Achieving this with a conventional anilox roll is nearly impossible.
This technology also improves cleanup, a major issue in the corrugated world, by providing a “river” design instead of a “pothole.”
It’s good.
The two-sided river design is 30-40% shallower, providing better release and allowing for finer line screens, which improves resolution and clarity. This roller is easier to keep clean and widens the range of printable graphics. It has been successful with many OEMs.
If you have something to talk that I have only one word sustainability. If you know this word, you can tell something about sustainability.
Longevity and durability are key. Glue and metering rolls are crucial for delivering the right amount of starch to make the board. Controlled gaps ensure better board quality, less warp, and fewer rejections. They also save starch and energy by applying a thinner, more uniform layer. Traditional chrome applicator rolls can flake, corrode, and are hard to clean due to their thin, porous surface.
Applicator rolls are easy to damage. We turn down the roll by 100 thousandths per side, weld stainless steel to the core, and grind it to a maximum tier of 0.0005 for concentricity and diameter.
This ensures the roll is as round and straight as possible, which is critical for controlling gaps. We use a new mill to engrave or knurl the pattern, typically 25-35 quad, to ensure consistent engraving from drive side to operator side.
After finishing, the roll undergoes a proprietary process to ensure smoothness, enhancing release ability.
Stainless steel rolls prevent corrosion and flaking, making them more durable than chrome. They can last 2-3 times longer. We also add crash rings to protect against damage from applicator walls.
If a roll crashes into the corrugated roll, it would be ruined without crash rings. Adding crash rings helps prevent damage, which is now standard for OEMs.
Metering rolls typically have a chrome surface and a scraper blade that causes wear. Over time, this leads to score lines and inconsistent starch transfer. We remove the chrome and corrosion barrier, apply a stainless steel barrier, and then plasma spray ceramic for durability.
The porosity is under 0.5%, and the hardness is about 1400 Vickers, twice as hard as chrome. Our proprietary finishing process makes the surface smooth, extending scraper blade life by ten times.
We aim for a maximum tier of 0.0002 to 3 tenths for roundness and straightness, ensuring uniform gap control. This roll is 2-3 times more durable than foam rolls, easier to clean, and less porous. Better gap control helps manufacturers apply starch more uniformly.
We encourage customers to retest board strength using the iodine or pin test. Increasing the gap can lead to warp and washboard issues. By closing the gap slightly and retesting, customers can achieve better, less rejectable boards, save starch and energy, and reduce rejections.
This European-developed technology has proven successful, and we are confident it can help produce better printable boards.
Thank you very much for interview!
Thank you Igor!
Reporting from Orlando by Igor Tkalenko – corruga.expert
