[caption id="attachment_86300" align="alignnone" width="500"] Monvera Glass Decor's new CNC bottle screen printer was significant to a 50 percent increase in production capacity.[/caption]
Richmond-based Monvera Glass Decor, which screen-prints labels on bottles for a number of North Coast wineries, on Wednesday said it completed a $1.6 million expansion, including the installation of a faster, more precise label printer.
"We continue to see growing interest in direct printing on bottles as a decoration alternative to paper labels," said Caitriona Anderson, vice president of sales and marketing. "This expansion allows us to keep up with market demand and service larger accounts. We have already seen a great interest in the unique capabilities that our new printing equipment offers and we’re excited to see where that will lead us in 2014."
Monvera said it increased production capacity more than 50 percent in the past year. The company attributed that largely to a new Fermac F06 six- to eight-color CNC screen printer for wine labels and claims to be the only North American bottle decorator to use this new technology.
Computer numerical control, or CNC, technology has been long-used in automating machine tools. Monvera claims that programming this printer allows "pixel-perfect" registration of colors in artwork applied to bottles. The machine is said to be capable of printing seamlessly around conventionally, oval and square bottles as well as on the neck and shoulder.
Additional capital expenditures include the addition of second decorating lehr, improved automation and a spray coating treatment unit.
The expansion was started in October 2011, when Monvera relocated to a 42,000-square-foot facility in Point Richmond. That put the company closer to wine and spirits customers in Sonoma and Napa counties and Francisco, according to the company. The move also allowed for the installation of a third production line, which came into service last year.
Monvera also screen-prints labels on food products containers.
