Koenig & Bauer Flexotecnica held an open house for customers at its plant in Tavazzano near Milan for the first time since the takeover by Koenig & Bauer in December 2013. On two days around 300 visitors were treated to live demonstrations of the Evo XD CI flexo press and received a raft of information about printing with water-based inks. “Our order books are full. We have doubled our world market share in recent years and the printing market for flexible packaging continues to grow. The open house has now convinced many customers to invest in our presses again or for the first time,” says Dr Peter Lechner, who has been managing director of Koenig & Bauer Flexotecnica for almost six months.

The live demonstration on an Evo XD was a highlight of the open house: Setup and printing in the extended colour space (seven colours plus additional opaque white) on transparent PET film (12 my) was demonstrated. In a second press pass, the film was given a matt coating in exact register. Many guests took a closer look at sections of the printed film and were impressed. "Augmented Support" options were then shown to customers with the help of AR-DataGlass technology.

Koenig & Bauer offers the data glasses as a rental model as part of its new select & more maintenance contracts, which are tailored to the customer's needs. Partner companies Sun Chemical, Pamarco, Trelleborg and longstanding partner BST eltromat then gave insights into their respective portfolios, with a focus on environmentally friendly printing with water-based inks. Sante Conselvan, president of industry association FTA Europe, presented the packaging printing market in Europe and the activities of his association.

The open house was held in English on the first day and the second day was in Italian. The visitors came from more than 20 countries and 50 Italian companies alone had registered. More than 300 visitors came to the plant in Tavazzano near Milan during the two days.