Tikedo is a European Group established following the merger of 12 label printing companies. With their 9 sites spread across Italy, Spain and Latvia, Tikedo has quickly become a European giant in the label printing world, turning over €64 million each year, whilst producing 7 billion labels and serving over 6000 customers annually.
Tikedo has a 73-strong fleet of flexo printing presses across their factories and, in 2023, decided to upgrade 7 of these to UV LED as the company strives for a more sustainable footprint. The bulk of the upgrades took place at their Santarcangelo di Romagna site, near Rimini, which was previously known as LGL Etichettificio, and it consisted of 48 AeroLED lampheads. The installations were on a variety of machines, comprising an ABG press, an Omet X6, and 5 Nilpeters, including an FA4, an FBZ and three FB machines.
Nicola Zannoni is the Director of Operations for the Tikedo Group, and he led the shift to UV LED to ensure the company continued their progress towards a more sustainable footprint. He commented: “When we first discussed the installations with GEW, the key focus was reducing the energy used in our process and at our plant. We felt that moving to UV LED would see a big reduction in our energy output, and moving away from mercury arc UV to UV LED also meant we no longer had any ozone and mercury impact environmentally.”
He continues: “We were also impressed by the financial benefits of the installation. Whilst there was a big initial outlay, with 48 lamps across the 7 machines, the ROI was around 1 year across the whole project. And even though we cannot say the exact energy savings from the project, it’s clear that the numbers are very close to what GEW project in their marketing.”
While Tikedo were keen to move to UV LED, they wanted to ensure they had the right partner, both in terms of product reliability and in terms of a company that offered great service. On these points, Zannoni was effusive in his praise for GEW: “We wanted a reliable partner with a good reputation in the market. But we also wanted to work with a company we knew we could rely on through the installation process and with any post-purchase issues. GEW’s reputation as the go-to UV curing company in the world made them a prime candidate to take on the role, and their service team highlighted why they are so well regarded throughout the installation, which was seamless. We were also very impressed with their Remote Monitoring system, which allows them to solve on-press problems much more efficiently, often without having to come to our site. Overall, the experience has been very good.”
In terms of the other benefits Tikedo have enjoyed since the installation, Zannoni pointed to the running speeds on offer and the maintenance benefits: “The most obvious benefit is the improved running speeds on offer – UV LED is a more efficient curing form for us. But there are also production savings on offer, as we no longer have to replace mercury arc UV lamps every 1,000-2,000 hours. There’s also a lot less maintenance involved in the process of cleaning these lamps, compared to the mercury arc lamps, which is a clear time saver. LED just makes sense for us.”
When asked what he would say to anyone considering a GEW system, Zannoni was clear: “GEW are an excellent partner for us, from the initial sale all the way through installation and into post-sale service support. We wouldn’t have any doubt about recommending them.”
To learn more about Tikedo, go to their website: www.tikedo.com
To learn more about AeroLED2, our next generation, higher power air-cooled UV LED curing system for flexo printers, go here.
This installation was carried out by our Italian distributor, Fornietic. You can find Fornietic’s details here.
