Stamp of Approval

Published: January 01, 2010, By Edited by Claudia Hine, Managing Editor

In 2005, when RockTenn-Montreal Folding needed additional hot foil stamping capacity to serve the consumer packaging market, the company held testing trials with several suppliers, including Gietz in Switzerland. The plant specializes in cosmetic and hair color packaging, and to a smaller degree greeting cards and food packaging, so it requires high quality equipment. Richard Lapalme, general manger, Yves Courcy, pressman, and Mario Charland, foreman, all traveled to Switzerland for the trials.

Two days later, they chose the Gietz FSA 1060 Foil Commander for their plant. It had the flexibility they wanted using the transverse foil transport system, which makes it possible to process large diameter foil rolls at maximum production speed.

After four years of operating the Foil Commander in around-the-clock production five days a week, the Montreal plant has seen an increase in annual production to almost 20 million sheets. According to Lapalme, “The Gietz can produce higher quality sheets with less downtime to reload new foil.”

Room To Grow

Rock Tenn-Montreal Folding is part of Georgia-based RockTenn, a producer of paperboard, containerboard, consumer and corrugated packaging, and merchandising displays. RockTenn employs approximately 10,000 people and operates more than 90 facilities in the US, Canada, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina, including 80 folding carton plants in North America.

Montreal Folding, located in the heart of French-speaking Canada, was formerly Wilco Printing, started more than 40 years ago as a commercial printer. Wilco bought Bourguignon Printers in the 1990s to establish itself in the folding carton market, and RockTenn bought Wilco Printing in 2003.

Today RockTenn-Montreal Folding has 250 employees in a modern 200,000-sq-ft facility with plenty of space to expand. The facility houses eight sheet-fed offset presses and six folder/gluers of various manufacturers, along with windowing capability. There are four 40-in. sheet-fed die-cutters and three 40-in. sheet-fed hot foil stamping presses. It is the only RockTenn location doing packaging for the hair coloring market.

The Gietz Foil Commander offers very high speed and the ability to have extended dwell time up to 2.5 sec. The patented “Vacufoil” foil transport system allows the feeding of very large diameter rolls at high speed and long pulls.

Lapalme says another important advantage is that the transport of the foil is in the same direction as the sheet. He has run as many as 12 different foils at the same time.

Lapalme called working the Gietz organization in Switzerland “very reassuring.” He says every guarantee has been met, and updates have been performed on his equipment as they became available. The equipment is supported by both Gietz AG in Switzerland and a domestic distributor, Matik Inc., of West Hartford, CT.

Lapalme said he will buy a second Gietz when the time comes to replace one of his other foil stampers. “The relative difference in the higher cost of the Gietz Foil Commander compared with the [other equipment we trialed] was easily justified by the many desirable features that will pay for themselves in the 25-plus-year life span of the press,” says Lapalme.