Combining Capabilities

With recent investments in new press and prepress equipment, Macaran Printed Products is enhancing its mission to provide the best value to its customers.

SOME OF THE most demanding markets to serve in the realm of package printing include health and beauty (HBA), food and beverage, and pharmaceutical. These markets are highly dynamic and competitive, and demand the utmost in quality and service.

These just happen to be three of the key markets served by Macaran Printed Products, a flexo label printer and a division of W.N. Van Alstine & Sons, Inc. Macaran provides high-quality, combination-printed labels on pressure-sensitive films and papers and unsupported films from its facility in Cohoes, N.Y. It operates seven presses with 72 employees, including those with Van Alstine & Sons.

Macaran is led by Nick Van Alstine, president of the company and grandson of its founder. To compete in these dynamic markets and to supply products to some of its leading consumer products companies, Van Alstine says what makes Macaran distinctive is the value of the business experience it provides its customers. "We want to be regarded by all our customers as the label converter that delivers the best overall value in the industry," he states.

Roots in packaging

Van Alstine & Sons, Inc. is an industrial distributor of packaging materials and equipment. The company was started in 1950 by Van Alstine's grandfather at the ripe young age of 73. The company was just two years old when it was passed on to Nick's father and uncle who took the company from a start up to a mature business.

Nick's father and uncle had a clear vision of how they wanted the company to progress in the packaging business. "With a concentration on packaging applications and pressure-sensitive tapes, it became clear to them that pressure-sensitive labeling was quickly emerging as a choice method for labeling. They saw this as an opportunity to become involved in manufacturing, something my dad had always dreamed of doing," says Van Alstine.

Macaran was born from this vision, with the purchase of the company's first press in 1972—a 7˝, 3-color Mark Andy 810 flexo press. "The rest is history," says Van Alstine. "Today we have seven presses with web widths to 13˝ and up to nine colors. Although we have moved to a more modern 55,000-sq.-ft. facility, we remained in Cohoes, N.Y. where we were founded and where many of our employees live."

Value in combination

Macaran began providing combination-printed products more than eight years ago and currently offers rotary screen, hot and cold foil stamping, UV flexo, flexo, extended content offerings, and unsupported films. Of the markets served by Macaran, HBA/personal care and beverage demand the most from the company's combination capabilities. But it doesn't stop there. "We're seeing more and more markets interested in combo printing," observes Van Alstine.

Combination printing provides benefits to consumer products companies where they need it most—on the store shelves. "It allows them to design interesting, sophisticated, and appealing packaging," says Van Alstine. Bottom line? "It helps them sell more product."

Because combination printing involves multiple processes in one press pass, it does demand more from press operators. If managed properly, however, Van Alstine doesn't see this as a problem.

"It's true that press operators need a higher level of training," he states. "If operators are not properly trained, and lean manufacturing principles are not practiced, a converter would experience greater set-up times and more waste. However, we have seen that with the proper training and the right equipment, it can be done efficiently."

Key investments

There are a number of serious challenges faced by package printers in today's markets. Van Alstine lists rapid turnarounds, competitive pricing, color consistency, and matching the printed piece to the proof. To address these critical concerns, Macaran has made some recent investments in press and prepress technology.

The seven presses operated by Macaran include presses from Gallus, Mark Andy, and Propheteer. The latest addition, a 9-color Gallus EM 280 combination press, went into operation in December. It complemented an existing Gallus EM 280 that Macaran had in operation for the past three years.

The Gallus EM 280 has allowed Macaran to meet the market challenges head-on. "We chose the EM 280 based on the outstanding quality they deliver consistently," says Van Alstine. "The ease of set up and changeover helps us to reduce time and waste. We really like their rotary screen systems as opposed to others we looked at."

An additional feature that Van Alstine highlighted was the IST America UV curing system incorporated into their new Gallus EM 280. This enhanced UV curing system has the chilled roll system built into the lamp system, as opposed to being separate systems, he says. This provides a tighter process—less movement of the film, less distortion, and tighter registration—notes Van Alstine. The key result for Macaran is the ability to run thin, unsupported films.

In the prepress operation, Macaran recently installed a new digital platform. "Working through Pitman, we moved to the DuPont Cyrel® FAST computer-to-plate system," says Van Alstine. "Our front-end system is Esko-Graphics and the proofing system is Latran's Prediction."

These prepress investments have improved Macaran's overall productivity, to go along with significant improvements in print quality—especially in the highlight areas and vignettes. "Moreover, our ability to proof on the actual stock used in printing gets us to target quickly and accurately," says Van Alstine.

by Tom Polischuk

Editor-in-Chief