Commercially launched last month following several months of tests, Super Sprint has been designed to speed up the application of rubber profiles to the cutting dies.
C&T said the product maintains all of the characteristics of the original Sprintrubba in terms of longevity and on-press performance, and adds a strong self-adhesive backing.
The new acrylic-based adhesive tape has the benefits of finger lift application and will stick to both treated and untreated surfaces.
The self-adhesive strip also allows the user to apply the rubber profile strip to the die without super glue.
As a result, application is said to be more time efficient as no manual gluing is required, which also avoids any health and safety issues associated with super glue. Additionally, it prevents delamination of the dieboard when the rubber is removed.
C&T commercial director Howard Mead said: “We are continually talking to our customers about what their issues are and how we can overcome those. One issue was that a lot of die makers and carton companies use super glue, which can be an issue if you get it on your skin.
“And while it sticks very well to the dieboard, when you clean the rubber off it can also damage the dieboard, and when you’ve spent a lot of money on a set of tooling you want to make sure that you look after it for the long term.”
Available in 7.25mm height with an 8mm base, other sizes of Super Sprint will soon be added and bespoke specifications can be manufactured at C&T’s UK site.
“We’ve invested £100,000 in a new production line for this – it’s a co-extruded product and we’ve developed this method of manufacturing to keep it cost neutral for the customer,” said Mead.
“Our tests with major carton converters throughout Europe and the US have been very successful and we’ve already had quite a few orders.”
The original Sprintrubba rubber profile, which will also remain available, is used by printers and die makers to give cleaner cuts.
Every product in the Sprintrubba range is 100% safe to use for food and pharmaceutical packaging and the raw material used in the manufacturing of Sprintrubba is now approved by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration).
Wellingborough, Northamptonshire-based C&T offers several brands of creasing matrix, including Kiss, Jazz, XTC and Trax Plus, and also manufactures and supplies a range of accessories for die-making, die-cutting and print finishing.
The business recently rolled out improvements to its Reverse Bend Matrix product, unveiled a new strategy of managed inventory for its larger UK customers and launched Rapido, which it called “a brand-new concept in PVC creasing matrix”.
