Page 14 - Print 21 Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

Cover Story
Advanced manufacturing
on the Starleaton agenda
Starleaton CEO Ben Eaton says printers can reinvent themselves as advanced manufacturers with their existing equipment, including the Zünd cutter the company supplies.
examples of businesses that have been predominantly in the print industry, but who have shown an ability to use their skills and their Zünd technology to create and reap the rewards of brand new markets, as their traditional print market, along with everyone else’s, shrank during the Covid crisis. He says, “PhotoMart, for instance, turned to producing desks from corrugated as everyone was working from home – a great idea which has a continued demand today. Carbon8 is making face masks, by the thousand. Both were able to quickly and easily configure their Zünd cutting tables to produce the new applications.
“If the printing industry as a whole could get itself reclassified as an advanced manufacturing industry
it would have major benefits,” Eaton says. “It would be more attractive to school leavers, the banks wouldn't run a mile like they do when you
say you are a printer, and most important of all it would open up a host of new opportunities to those companies.
“Printers have continuously invested in new technology, and absolutely have the opportunity
to take advantage of the flexibility machines such as the Zünd cutting systems can offer. They have the smarts, they understand customer service, it is a real opportunity.”
Zünd cost savings
Flexibility can be a key concern when looking for a new cutting table – it is no good investing in expensive new kit if, six to 12 months down the line, it cannot do the jobs you need it to. Zünd cutters, supplied in Australia and New Zealand by Starleaton,
help overcome this problem with a modular design which means you can upgrade your cutter without breaking the bank.
Eaton says, “It is not a new table or a new model – it is an upgrade path for customers, new or current, that allows them to be assured that their investment is protected. Tomorrow, when someone comes in with a weird and wonderful application that
Tell someone around the barbecue you are a printer and the odds are you will be placed in the oily rags category; tell a banker you
are a printer and watch the till snap shut. Think of yourself as a printer and you may not get past the idea of putting ink on a substrate and finishing it.
However, printing is in reality an advanced manufacturing process, connected by digital technology, driven by IT, using innovative hardware to produce something from nothing, at high speed, for low cost.
And according to Starleaton
CEO Ben Eaton, if printers start thinking of themselves as advanced
14 Print21 JULY/AUGUST 2020
Above
World of opportunity: Ben Eaton, CEO, Starleaton
manufacturers, who produce printed products, but could if required
or desired turn their skills, and equipment, to multiple other applications, then they, and the industry as a whole, will be in a much better situation.
Eaton says, “Print businesses have a wealth of skill sets, from file handling and colour management to mechanical skills. A Zünd cutter for instance can be used for a range of applications, with print just one of them. If a printer can reorient their vision of themselves to one of an advanced manufacturer, then a range of new markets and applications opens up.”
Eaton points to the likes of Carbon8 and PhotoMart as prime