Ice cream cups, shampoo bottles, paint buckets or engine oil canisters: In-mold labels are conquering more and more product segments. A glance at a store shelf – or a visit to Turkey’s Aegean coast – illustrates this.

In the free trade zone of Izmir, a city of millions, Korsini produces over 700,000 sheets of IML labels per day for global brand manufacturers such as Mondelez, Kraft Heinz Company, Nestle, Unilever, Akzo Nobel and many others. Last year in June, the IML specialists brought a second plant on-stream here – its third in total in Turkey – and thus almost doubled its production area from 22,000 sqm to just under 40,000 sqm in one fell swoop. And this is where the success story growth continues.

Flexibility for all markets

In 1998, IML is still at the learning phase and only a tiny segment in the packaging industry. Nevertheless, Piero Corsini Jr., a descendant of a long-established Italian Family and printing dynasty, recognizes its potential. Together with his nephew Enrico Corsini, who joined the family business in 1996 directly from Italy and started the first manufacturing of IML for the local market. Later on, in a joint venture with Turkey’s largest flexible packaging producer Korozo, they establish the Korsini company as the first ‘dedicated’ IML plant, which Piero heads as Chairman until his death in 2014, and Enrico – first as CEO and then also as Chairman – expands into the second largest IML manufacturer in the world.

The company embarks on a sustainable growth path from 2010, as sheetfed offset printing becomes increasingly attractive for IML production. At the same time, the partnership with Heidelberg gathers momentum. A Speedmaster XL 105 eight-color press with a quadruple extended delivery is just the beginning. Further investments in Peak Performance technology from Heidelberg follow in quick succession. All the presses are from the Speedmaster XL 106 series, with nearly all of them geared towards mixed operation. Flexible changes between conventional printing and UV printing mean that a wide variety of market requirements can be met in an economical manner. The portfolio ranges from semi-gloss orange peel labels, such as for ice cream or cream cheese packaging, to high-gloss labels. These are popular for confectionery and cosmetics or in markets such as Gulf, UK and Asia, for example.

Pioneering spirit leads to greater productivity

In close mutual exchange with customers, Heidelberg repeatedly launches innovations onto the market and continually pushes the performance limits further to respond to new trends and requirements. In this spirit, Heidelberg revolutionizes die-cutting in IML production with the Speedmaster XL 106-DD, and Korsini promptly embraces the innovation. “The rotary die-cutter enabled us to double our output from 4,500 sheets/hour with the flatbed die-cutter to up to 10,000 sheets/hour,” explains Enrico Corsini.

The next jump in productivity is achieved thanks to the use of perfecting presses, which Heidelberg equips with a quadruple extended delivery for high-speed production with high coating application. As a result, Korsini can print both sides of IML labels in one pass. This provides extra added value for customers, who can use the back of the label for informational or marketing purposes, without affecting the overall aesthetic impression of the packaging. This is because the imprint, e.g. recipes, instructions for use or ingredients, is only visible on the inside or after opening the packaging.

LED UV and IML Performance Package

With two Speedmaster XL 106 eight-color presses, cutting-edge technology from Heidelberg has been a feature of the second plant in Izmir from the outset. Both presses are equipped with the IML Performance Package, and one is additionally fitted with DryStar LED UV dryers. Korsini intends to use this special equipment to drive up net output even further. Ultimately, the resilience against abrasion, heat and humidity of the in-mold labels applied to the finished sales packaging is equal to the difficulty of processing these ultralight plastic films with a thickness of just 50 µm and a grammage of less than 30g/qm. While LED UV minimizes the amount of heat transferred, the performance package ensures stable and wrinkle-free high-speed production of up to 15,000 sheets/hour. “In this way, we are able to produce even more quickly and reliably,” says Enrico Corsini.



In the free trade zone of Izmir, a city of millions, Korsini produces over 700,000 sheets of IML labels per day for global brand manufacturers such as Mondelez, Kraft Heinz Company, Nestle, Unilever, and Akzo Nobel.

A trusting partnership

Heidelberg fosters trusting collaboration with its customers. Accordingly, the partnership with Korsini goes well beyond presses. This is also due to the market, which demands highly specialized application know-how. Thanks to its extensive networking with IML, foil and ink manufacturers as well as injection molding companies, Heidelberg has acquired comprehensive knowledge in this market and uses its unique expertise to help customers deal with all kinds of issues. In return, Heidelberg is made aware of new requirements very early on and can provide innovations to fulfill them. Both sides benefit from this – and the growth can continue.

About Korsini:

  • Headquarters: Izmir, Turkey
  • 3 plants in Turkey, 1 plant in Italy with a total of 42,100 m2 of indoor space

korsini.com

Specialities:

  • IML specialist
  • Offset printing, rotogravure and flexo printing
  • Korsini is the only dedicated IML Printing company in the world which has all these printing methods under one roof.

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