Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill PJSC is an important player in the global packaging market. For their prototyping operations, the company recently invested in Zünd digital cutting technology. The move to digital cutting has resulted in significantly shorter development times and the quality of the prototypes is significantly enhanced.
The packaging products that are developed by PJSC Kyiv Cardboard and Paper Mill’s packaging department — and subsequently manufactured in large volume — are popular with brands around the world. In-house packaging development under the direction of Andrey Savyuk has been a key driver of the company’s success. As of summer 2018, a Zünd G3 cutter is now being used for making prototypes. “Our customer base consists of roughly 500 companies”, states Savyuk. “As part of the packaging development process, the vast majority of our customers require prototypes before going to high-volume production. At this point, without digital cutting capabilities, there is no way we would be able to keep up with customer demand.”
For equipment purchases throughout the company, PJSC favor state-of-the-art production machinery from European suppliers, explains Savyuk. Because of the capabilities of the Zünd system, the company’s designers and developers can now reap the full benefit of digital cutting. “Because of the Zünd’s high productivity and precision, we can now implement a vast range of customer demands quickly and efficiently – just in time and on demand, so to speak,” said Savyuk.
For file preparation and the digital production workflow, PJSC uses Zünd Cut Center ZCC. On-the-fly changes, which are common in prototyping, can be made very quickly in ZCC. This fact alone has brought about even greater reductions in the turn-around time for product development. “With its open and modular architecture, the Zünd cutter has given us significant competitive advantages in prototype production. If and when the need arises, we have the option to simply add processing capabilities to our existing system,” explained Savyuk.
Established in 1969, PJSC’s factory in Obukhiv near Kiev has a workforce of 2,500 and is part of the Austrian Pulp Mill Group. It produces approximately 240,000 metric tons of coated board, corrugated board, and paper annually. This is in addition to 70,000 tons of hygiene products such as toilet paper, napkins, and paper towels. PJSC also produces corrugated containers and packaging – approximately 300 million sqm annually in corrugated packaging alone, which is equivalent to roughly half of the surface area of the Ukraine.
