Finishing - Conventional

What do you do when you have established tried-and-true converting methods and along comes a new innovation? You react and adapt. Some suppliers of folding and gluing equipment have already done so with their product offerings. In light of new European standards requiring Braille application on every pharmaceutical carton, companies like Bobst Group North America and American International Machinery (A.I.M.) have incorporated this technology in their product offerings. “A.I.M. is expecting this European trend to move here to the U.S. very soon, and has uncovered a low-cost, high-speed process that will apply Braille to the product as it is being produced on the folder-gluer,”

Companies that design and build folders/gluers are working hard to help their customers maintain a competitive edge. packagePRINTING talked to a number of companies that produce high-performance folder/gluers to get their view on what their customers need. Alan Thompson, product manager, Bobst Group USA—Today’s customers are seeking the best “price-to-performance” that money can buy. Many base their decision based upon the amount of work which is being farmed out. Bringing this work in-house not only ensures better cost control, but better quality control of the finished product. Secondly, potential savings in makeready time and improved run speeds are also evaluated by customers with

REWINDERS PLAY AN important roll in today's print shops and can make or break a great print run. For example, registration can be right on the mark, color can be perfect, then Whammo!, during the rewinding process the entire roll can "telescope" into a useless pile of wound-up trash. "Maintaining uptime and reducing downtime on the rewinder has been a goal for some time," said Brian Ivens, manager, sales and marketing, Arpeco. "Quality of design and manufacturing has always been a significant method of providing reliability and dependability with equipment." There are many reasons the rewinding process can be a problem, but knowing what

Folding and gluing equipment manufacturers don't run the loudest marketing campaigns for their products, but there's plenty of innovation in the marketplace to shout about. FOLDER/GLUERS DON'T attract the attention that new presses and prepress software do. But that's not to say manufacturers of this finishing equipment don't have a reason to brag. According to Craig Jasper, sales director for converting equipment and product packaging at Roberts PolyPro, in the past five years, significant advancements have been made in the safety, quality, and value-added areas of folding and gluing equipment. With safety a top priority for every converter, some companies have taken such measures

Focusing on your customers' application parameters—while keeping cost, safety, and simplicity in mind—are important factors in choosing the right slitter for the job. ACCORDING TO "Slitting Techniques, Choosing the Best Method," produced by Tidland Corporation, it may be safe to say there are not many manufacturing industries that handle such a wide array of processed materials as package printing. Most of these materials need to be slit—cleanly, easily, and safely—in most converters' operations. There are three main slitting methods in use and Tidland has come up with a formula to best match the correct slitting method to the application. Easy as 1, 2, 3