DS Chemport has started 2008 by being appointed exclusive distributor for Vulcan blankets for the Australasia region in a deal it signed with Swedish manufacturer Trelleborg AB
DSC has been located in its wholly owned Campbellfield, Vic, site for the last 15 years and produces its well-known range of pressroom chemical products and coatings there.
Part of DSC’s commitment to the new agency is the soon to commence construction of a new $1.8m 2000sqm factory adjacent to the existing premises in Campbellfield. This factory will house the state-of-the-art blanket converting facility, which has been set up temporarily in the current building and will provide Australian and New Zealand customers with the well-known and established Vulcan blankets.
The blankets are being imported in master rolls from Trelleborg’s manufacturing plants and converted locally to any press specification required. It will be the largest and most modern blanket converting operation in Australasia.
Ken Rendell, DS Chemport’s associate director states that DSC has been no stranger to Vulcan blankets. “We have been Trelleborg’s partner in South-East Asia for over 15 years, and have distributed Vulcan blankets throughout the region from our converting facilities in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.”
Trelleborg itself acquired the Vulcan brand in late 2006 as part of its purchase of Reeves Bros, an American manufacturer of polymer-coated materials. This acquisition enhanced Trelleborg’s expertise in blanket manufacturing, amassed over several decades. It now manufactures Vulcan offset printing blankets for the commercial sheetfed and web, newspaper, UV, business forms, metal decorating, and packaging markets.
As a logical extension of its already existing and well-established relationship, Trelleborg and DS Chemport combined their strengths to further develop the Vulcan brand and market share in the Australasian region.
In line with Trelleborg’s distribution policy, DS Chemport has been appointed exclusive distributor for all Vulcan products in the Australasia region.
Representation in New Zealand will be via DS Chemport’s agent, Chemtek (New Zealand).A number of DS Chemport staff have the expertise and experience with Vulcan blanket products and sold blankets in the past. DS Chemport deals exclusively in pressrooms and has very good, long standing relationships with all major newspaper groups, commercial heatset operators and sheetfed printing companies in the region.
It is the leading manufacturer of fountain solutions to the newspaper industry and general press chemistry to all market sectors nationally.
Personnel Expertise, sales and support
Vulcan printing blankets have developed a well-established profile in Australia and New Zealand. Added to this is DSC's status as a subsidiary of the Fujifilm Group, and its enviable customer relations in the newspaper, heatset and sheetfed domain – with press chemistry and post-press products.
There is also a sales and support infrastructure that includes offices in all state capitals, with qualified chemists and technical support staff. Together, all these factors build a formula for success.
DSC has employed additional specialists to support the Vulcan range, including Andreas Rau as national product manager, David Wells as northern region manager, based in Sydney, and Keith Clowes as southern region manager, based in Melbourne.
DS Chemport formulates and manufactures all its own products.
Being part of the Fujifilm group gives a lot of interaction with its associated companies around the globe who exchange ideas, formulations and products. All companies within the
group share access to the latest innovations and deal closely with all press manufacturers internationally.
From a standpoint of technical know-how and support, DSC has a strong presence in the industry.
Quality that pays off
Andreas Rau, DSC’s national product manager identifies three characteristics as ‘must-haves’ in a quality press blanket: durability, consistency and performance, all of which are tightly controlled because DSC has its own converting facilities. Rau says, “DSC has invested heavily in equipment and personnel to support our customer base. We will not only deliver premium products but also fulfill and exceed our customers’ expectations.”
Marco Carlini, Trelleborg’s regional technical and commercial manager states that Vulcan has made a name for itself as one of the major manufacturers of metal-based blankets for newspaper and heatset printing. “This is a relatively new blanket technology, designed to offer greater press performance, consistency, and reduced press downtime.”
Trelleborg started manufacturing metal-back blankets in 1993 and has established itself as the leading manufacturer worldwide. This technology is being used by major newspaper producers in Australasia - currently, Border Mail Printing and APN in Yandina. In the near future, Rural Press Queensland and Rural Press Christchurch will install presses that will be started up with Vulcan metal blankets. Newspaper printers are getting increasingly interested in metal-back blankets.
Carlini says, “Feedback from customers has been very positive, with durability perhaps even greater than with traditional flat blankets, stability, speed and distortion-free imaging. Since the new converting facilities have commenced operation, a number of new customers have started using Vulcan products on a regular basis.”
In the highly competitive Australasian blanket market, quality has become an increasingly important factor, even as low-cost imports have driven price levels down, notes Rau.
“While less expensive blankets may have their role in some selected market segments, they are counter-productive for the mainstream users. They end up being replaced more often and therefore end up being more costly in the long run. And that's not even considering their inferior on-press performance.”
At its converting facility DSC offers another first for Australia – it uses the same barring technology as Trelleborg does at its own factories. The thermal-tape technology, approved and patented by Trelleborg, is superior to the two-component epoxy gluing process used in conventional blanket converting.
Conventional blanket converting is based on a process using a two-component glue applied manually. Trelleborg’s approach, which uses temperature-activated thermal tape material, is more precise and stable than the vagaries of applying differing amounts of glue, he explains. Trelleborg has been using the barring technology for 15 years.
Another vital part of DSC’s converting process is the use of a
bar pull-off device to check the strength of the adhesion between blanket and bar – in accordance with international quality-control standards set by press manufacturers.
Carlini states that Trelleborg always passes its technology on to their exclusive distributors. “We have a policy of only using exclusive distributors, so our distributors become partners.”
Australasia’s top blanket converter
DSC will have the widest and most modern cutting and barring equipment in Australasia, enabling it to supply locally produced blankets for 64, 72 and 80-page presses, including directory presses. DSC is able to apply bars to very large blankets and thereby has a major advantage over some other converters.
During the installation of the cutting and barring machinery, technical specialists from the equipment manufacturers spent a number of weeks in Campbellfield to oversee the installation and commissioning plus - even more importantly to thoroughly train DS Chemport staff in all aspects of blanket converting.
Whilst applying bars to cut blankets looks simple, it is a very precise procedure and if not done properly, can have severe implications in case of failure.
“That’s why we invested in the best available technology all the way from manufacturing to quality control,”
states Rau.
Carlini comments that the manufacturing time for Trelleborg’s jumbo blanket rolls for converting from the start to the end of the roll is about four weeks utilising the factory’s 24-hour shifts. “Printers sometimes don’t realise how much technology is incorporated in a blanket. That’s why worldwide there aren’t many blanket manufacturers, maybe ten serious ones.”
Asked if he thought Chinese-made blankets are a threat to other suppliers in the Australasian market, Carlini noted: “Not really. Customers find that they are not matching their quality and performance expectations. We believe that at the end of the day, quality always pays off.
“They’re making small inroads in isolated areas,” adds Rau. “But then printers realise it isn’t worth it for them to save some money but have more press downtime and paper wastage. These are false economies. Customers like to know what they’re getting and we know for a fact that, for example, metropolitan newspaper printing companies would never risk that.”
Another focus of Trelleborg’s blanket philosophy is availability of a range of neutral paper feed blankets for news-paper production and some heatset applications, says Carlini. “Some of the major newspaper accounts in Australia are already using this technology. Put simply, these blankets push less paper into the printing units and thereby give the printer more control over the web.
“It’s a much more forgiving blanket as far as setting the press goes. The net results are better registration, less paper wastage and breaks and easier control of the web down the former and out
of the folder.”
Market Update
“Since commencing our in-house converting, we have made a seamless transition from the previous distributor and can proudly say that no noticeable business was lost - in fact, we matched and exceeded the quality expectations of our customers,” states Rendell.
Feedback without exception from all customers has been pleasing and new business on substantial levels has been generated already in the relatively short time we have been dealing with Vulcan blankets.
