It was a dark wet Autumn evening which made the turn off into the
Kennedy Way Industrial Estate all that more unassuming and in no way
indicated the operation about to be revealed within.
On the evening of the 11th November 2015 the local IET network visited
Delta Print and Packaging, a local company which produces packaging
for some of the world’s largest brands. Our guide, R&D director
Alistair Farmer, provided a comprehensive tour of the facility where
the printing capability would embarrass the most capable work place
laser, never mind your domestic inkjet.
As a 24hour operation this factory produces a mind blowing number of
units at a tremendous rate. One particular machine accepts rolls of
paper which are 7km long and can process these in just over 10
minutes. The scale can be summed up in one person’s comment that they
never had to climb onto a printer before.
It would be easy to focus on the printing but as a packaging company
the end product is a three dimensional shape, so in addition to the
printing are forming and shaping, cutting and gluing machines. The
company works with its customers to produce innovative and optimised
designs.
This is a company where standards are very high, even the smallest
fault is unacceptable and to that end robotic arms are utilised to
stack pallets solely on the consistency that they provide.
As most of the packaging is used in the food industry and can be in
direct contact with cooked food, special printing processes are used
to ensure food safety. As a high level of cleanliness is required
everyone had to wear hygiene coats and hair nets (some even wore beard
nets!) but it was a small price to pay to see around this fascinating
business.
THANKS TO DELTA PRINT & PACKAGING FOR A HUGELY INFORMATIVE & INTERESTING TOUR
Where you on the tour- what did you think?
Have you any suggestions for future IET NI tours?