The Cheshire firm makes cold foiling systems that can be retrofitted to most sheetfed litho presses, and its indexing technology can also be retro-fitted to existing cold foil units.
While the Covid-19 pandemic hindered its usual international trade, the company used the hiatus to make further enhancements to its indexing systems, and hopes to increase its profile with customers in the domestic market.
In 2018 Scienta developed a clever foil indexing system that delivers dramatic savings by using foil that would normally go to waste.
“We’ve been working on it for a long, long time and we cracked it two years ago,” explained director Phil Haworth.
“We tried four different ways to achieve this, in order to produce something that is reliable, with the right consistency and user-friendliness.”
The firm has around 40 installations worldwide. Thame-based greetings card and stationery specialist Windles has been an early adopter, with the firm having developed its own cold foiling techniques many years ago.
Scienta’s indexing systems can deliver foil use savings from 25% to 55% and even as much as 70%, depending on the configuration and type of work involved.
The firm’s D4 Indexer stops and restarts foil from one sheet to the next with a gap minimum as possible. The D4 Indexer with multi-roll facility stops and restarts the foil from one sheet to the next, again with as small a gap as possible.
The D4 system was developed with the help of customer Engas Drukarnia in Bielsko-Biala, Poland, which allowed the Scienta team to work on its presses over weekends to perfect the technology.
During the lockdowns and travel restrictions, Haworth said the firm had been working on further enhancements to benefit existing and new customers.
Scienta’s latest device is the D4v6 FS+ Indexer with single roll. This stops and reverses the foil “allowing for unused foil between already foiled images to be used to further foil savings” Haworth explained.
Windles has already upgraded its setup to the D4v6 FS+ system.
The indexing configuration depends on the height of the existing printing/foiling units. Retrofitting the device involves a six-figure investment, while the savings can run into thousands of pounds per job, Haworth explained.
He said the firm’s existing installed base included printers in a wide range of applications including packaging, magazine covers, stickers, plastics, DVD covers and book covers.
It can also retrofit the indexing system to Foiltone devices.
The foil savings are also helpful firms looking at ways to improve their environmental and sustainability credentials.
