Competence, experience and pioneering spirit
ENULEC’s success story is a classic example of how a burning technical problem can be solved through dedicated creativity and often with limited resources. During his internship at a market-leading print shop in the early 1980s, student and later company founder Hubertus Dettke experienced the shortcomings of the printing processes commonly used at the time. These included the often poor print quality caused by error-prone and technically inadequate methods of ink transfer. In addition, there were frequent fires in the printing units caused by electrostatic charges, and the corresponding safety precautions were only rudimentary and often consisted of adventurous auxiliary constructions.
In the meantime, 40 years have passed and ENULEC GmbH, founded in 1981 and based in Trittau, has established a leading market position in the field of electrostatic printing aids (ESA) with quality-enhancing products for packaging gravure printing.
Even today, when traveling around the world, you can sometimes observe printing processes in which tinsel or Christmas garlands are attached to printing units to reduce or dissipate electrostatic discharges. Packaging printing, with its wide variety of film substrates and their individual properties, still poses a particular challenge for the reliable operation of an ESA.
There is a widespread opinion, particularly in the Asian markets, that the use of load-balancing ESA systems is limited exclusively to paper and cardboard and is therefore unsuitable for film substrates. This is presumably due to the fact that moving film webs generate static charges through movement alone and the use of ESA allegedly increases these charge potentials.
The need for technical education, combined with the strong industrial development of the BRIC countries, was the reason for ENULEC GmbH to expand its trips abroad after the restrictions imposed by the pandemic and to prioritize trade fairs, events and presentations in these countries in 2023.
Due to the growth of a consumer-oriented middle class in the BRIC countries, whose community will expand even further from 2024, the economy expects an increase in the production of packaging for the individual needs of broader sections of the population, which must be manufactured as sustainably, robustly and cost-effectively as possible and at the same time be easy to open. The UN is forecasting an increase in the total population in urban areas of around five billion people worldwide over the next few years. In addition to luxury items, the food industry and therefore also packaging manufacturers will be challenged to meet the diverse needs of consumers.
According to studies by the American market research consultancy, Asian countries are the undisputed driving force, particularly in the trade in exquisitely packaged consumer goods.
With the requirements of the global packaging industry in mind, ENULEC has developed an ESA that helps to reduce film loads and reliably control electrostatics. This is particularly important as some users require measurement results of less than 0.3 KV on OPP.
For applications where not all printing units are switched on with ESA, ENULEC has developed the ESA Roto-Film Pro, which automatically ensures balanced charging even in such cases.
Roto-Film Pro with “Dynamically Balanced Charging” generates an improved charge balance on the substrates even when ESAs are switched on randomly in a gravure printing press.