Cartons Go Upscale

Published: February 01, 2009, By Edited by Claudia Hine, Managing Editor

Tom Wynne, VP of manufacturing at Fleetwood-Fibre Packaging & Graphics, figured the first three manroland presses worked so well, the fourth shouldn't be any different. Responding to changing market conditions, the converter added a Roland 700 Hi-Print sheet-fed offset press with ultraviolet (UV) coater to handle the company's high-end folding carton work.

“This is our fourth Roland 700 press in the last 11 years,” Wynne says. “It replaced a four-color press with coater that was only four or five years old. Several years ago, 75 percent of our folding carton business was four-color or less. Today it is just the opposite, as we add more high-end work of five colors or more. We couldn't keep the four-color press busy, but we have plenty of work for an older Roland 700 six-color press and this one.”

In addition to turning out upscale carton work, a key issue for Wynne in the decision to purchase the Roland 700 was to drive down operating costs. “This new press can help us do that in many ways,” he says.

“We did consider other press manufacturers. Looking at our current business and what we need to handle it, the flexibility along with time and waste-saving features designed in the Roland 700 Hi-Print made a lot of sense. We have all of the Quick-Change features for faster makereadies and less paper waste.”

Corrugated and Cartons

One of California's largest independent print operations (over $70 million in sales for 2007), Fleetwood-Fibre Packaging & Graphics was formed in 2002. Fleetwood merged with Fibre Containers, a 54-year-old company that has run manroland presses in its folding carton plant for 35 years. The firm now operates from two side-by-side plants totalling 250,000 sq ft, producing work for 2,000-some clients in virtually all types of industries.

The bulk of Fleetwood-Fibre's overall business is corrugated. Wine boxes, agricultural packaging, and point-of-purchase displays are produced in one facility, and folding carton rules in the other building. Here, the manroland presses run labels for displays while primarily producing a growing percentage of high-end carton work for personal care products, cell phone accessories, medical/pharmaceutical packaging, upscale food packaging, and floral delivery.

Fleetwood-Fibre's Roland 700 has a perfector between the first and second units and reportedly can go straight to perfecting mode in less than a minute. Features include automatic format setting, automatic ink/roller blanket washers, remote-control inking, automatic plate loading, and automatic sheet size and thickness adjustment.

“Perfecting and the in-line UV coater are a huge plus for us,” Wynne reiterates, while keeping in mind how this press will help him pursue new business. “It will cut plenty of time off many projects, and we'll be doing it all in-house. The other automated features on the Roland 700 also save a lot of time as well as substrate for startup, which means less waste handling and lower disposal costs, too. On the energy side, if a job now goes through in one pass instead of three, you're using considerably less energy to deliver each job.”