Engineering Quality

It’s been 10 years and quite a ride for Wrightstown, Wis.-based Coating Excellence International (CEI). During the past decade, the company has expanded seven times, grown from 13 to 380 people, and is now set to expand into a second plant. In the grand scheme of things, 10 years is not a long time. So, going from $1.9 million in sales for 1997 to a projected $170 million for 2007 is remarkable.

What started out as an extrusion coating operation has become a 600,000-sq.-ft. facility with nine flexo presses, three offset presses, two adhesive laminators, four extruders, and a variety of rewinders and slitters. A constant for the company has been continual reinvestment, allowing it to build quality into all its products. “CEI has bought new, state-of-the-art equipment with the latest quality-control equipment,” says Michael Nowak, president/owner. “This allows CEI to engineer quality into its products and gives production employees the tools to make consistent high-quality products.”

Rapid-growth market leader

From its beginnings in 1997 with its first extruder, CEI has been a packaging company that specializes in extrusion coating and laminating, printing, and woven bags. According to Nowak, key markets for which CEI produces printed packaging materials include ream wrap, woven bags (for large packages such as dog food and bird seed), food packaging (sugar, gum, pouches), and overwraps (tissue products, insulation, and others).

One principle that has guided Nowak and co-founder William Arndt from the start is to buy new equipment that is built to fit customers’ requirements, rather than make customers’ requirements fit existing equipment and generalized processes.

Their philosophy has paid off. Today, CEI claims to be the largest North American supplier of ream wrap with a more than 50 percent market share; has more than 80 percent North American market share in frozen pizza labels and bubble envelope base; has a more than 50 percent share of the North American sugar packet business; and has a more than 80 percent North American market share of frozen pizza labels.

CEI is also a sole-source supplier to Weyerhaeuser, Georgia Pacific, Boise Cascade, and 3M for the products they supply to them.

Early in the game, Julie George and Lynda Swenson, both colleagues of Nowak and Arndt in the flexible packaging industry, sought to be part of the company. George and Swensons brought industry expertise, sales and marketing backgrounds, and customer-centric ideals to the table. When they joined CEI, they added 17 production employees, each with 15-20 years of converting industry experience. Today, Swenson is the company’s vice president of sales and marketing.

By 1999, CEI added flexo printing to its arsenal of capabilities, and, in doing so, became a major, regional employer.

The company also constantly strives to eliminate any production inefficiencies. By implementing automatic video detection on the presses, the equipment can produce precision quality while running at very high speeds. Additionally, the company developed robotic arms to help equipment operators change paper rolls quickly. These investments helped the company accommodate customer demands for higher quality at lower prices by eliminating production inefficiencies.

Product innovations

CEI has two prodcts to its credit: CleanStrip™ and SUPER TUBE.

To create CleanStrip, the company developed a new concept in copy paper ream wrap, one of its major markets. Instead of using traditional paper-wrap packaging, major retailers of office products could use a less expensive poly-wrap that opens similar to a pack of gum, with a peeling-strip. OfficeMax and Staples have adopted CleanStrip.

One of the company’s major expansions (to the tune of 120,000 sq. ft.) was to accommodate the manufacturing of its SUPER TUBE product. SUPER TUBE woven bags are designed for packaging dog food, cat food, and bird seed. Retailers demanded a new bag that was reverse-printed film over a super strong mesh, so CEI installed domestic mesh bag production equipment that made a stronger bag with more vivid branding for the product at a much lower cost.

Enhancing the product

CEI added a Nordmechanica adhesive laminator line in 2006 and an extrusion laminator in the same year, bringing the company’s coating/laminating arsenal to four extruders and two adhesive laminators. “CEI can do either extrusion or adhesive laminations,” says Nowak. “On the adhesive laminators, CEI laminates paper, foil, or film to other films on either a solventless or EB [electron beam] laminator. On the extrusion laminators, CEI can laminate paper to other paper, film, foil, or nonwovens.” The company works with a variety of substrates including paper (coated or uncoated, board to lightweight), foil, nonwoven, PET, BOPP, PE and specialty multi-layer films.

CEI is also committed to producing packaging that is good for the environment. All of its inks are water-based, with water-based and EB over-varnishes. Laminating adhesives are solventless and EB. “We have made a commitment to water-based inks and solventless adhesives,” says Nowak. “CEI has worked diligently to develop products that meet customers’ needs while using water-based inks and solventless adhesives. [We have] also developed products that reduce the weight of the package overall, while providing [a] barrier. This results in less waste to landfill.”

Nowak states that laminating allows CEI to combine different substrates and build a product that combines the performance attributes of both substrates. “This provides a better performing package than the substrates individually,” he says.

On the horizon

Two global issues affect CEI: Asian packaging and finished goods from Asia that are already packaged, which eliminates the possibility of CEI supplying the packaging. “In both cases, where this will lead is a question. There are real concerns about Chinese imports [regarding] product safety, as we saw [with] the latest issues in the pet food market,” says Nowak.

CEI is keeping an eye on a variety of new coating/laminating techniques.

One technique is to use non-thermal drying systems that result in no-curl to the end product. These include solventless systems—with new multi-component adhesives that cure after the two components are mixed—and EB curing that cures when the adhesive passes the beam.

CEI also continues taking steps to ensure the quality of its products, especially via its employees. “Production employees take responsibility for quality and all aspects of the operation,” says Nowak. “CEI has a commitment to make our customers successful and do it by making employees valuable, contributing members of the operation in a team-oriented environment.” pP