Cover Story?Sheetfed offset, providing best overall value

Caraustar's Chicago Carton Plant uses its strengths in sheetfed offset printing to be a best-value supplier of paperboard packaging.

SHEETFED OFFSET PRINTING is a specialty at Caraustar's Chicago Carton Plant. They've been doing it for the past 40 years, since the founding of the original Crane Carton Company by Alan Crane.

The plant provides printed virgin and recycled paperboard materials to a variety of end-use markets, including dry and frozen foods, hardware, automotive, entertainment, and software. With Caraustar's status as one of the largest North American producers of recycled paperboard, Paul Curtis, general manager of Caraustar's Chicago and Grand Rapids, Mich. plants, says there is a natural emphasis on the use of recycled paperboard. The paperboard stock printed at the plant ranges from 0.012 to 0.054˝, and is printed using low VOC and soybean oil-based inks.

Part of an integrated company

Caraustar acquired the Chicago plant in October, 2000 from Alan Crane and his son, Bruce. At that time and under some pressure from their larger customers, Alan and Bruce decided that the best way to secure a solid future for the business and its employees was to sell the operation to a larger integrated company. Their foresight seems to have paid off as the plant has maintained its solid footing during the recent period of industry consolidation.

The plant is run by 153 hourly and 26 salaried employees and consists of five offset presses—two Planetas and three MAN Roland sheetfed presses—and six diecutters. As a sheetfed offset printer, the plant's emphasis is on high-quality printing. Caraustar augments this positioning by operating with a philosophy of providing the best overall value for its customers.

"We strive to produce cartons that run better in our customers' operations than those from our competition," says Curtis. "We focus on process control and continuous improvement, and can provide a one-stop shop to help our customers in all aspects of their packaging needs—from graphic design and prepress through designing and recommending new packaging and filling lines."

He points out that throughout all of Caraustar's operations, manufacturing managers are actively involved with customer accounts. This provides them with the foundation and knowledge they need to provide best-valued products.

Although the plant provides printed packaging materials for a diverse range of consumer markets, a key market for the operation is its dry and frozen food business, along with ice cream novelties. Because of the emphasis on this market segment, the plant applied for an audit and rating of its quality and sanitation practices to be done by the American Institute of Baking (Manhattan, Kan.).

According to Curtis, this annual audit covers cleaning systems and procedures, pest and insect control, programs for glass control, and employee work practices, among other areas. In an audit conducted last October, the plant received a Superior Rating, quite an accomplishment for a first-time effort. Now, with this rating in hand, the plant is further able to demonstrate the commitment it has to its customers' success, emphasizes Curtis.

Presses perform

One of the keys to success at the Caraustar Chicago Carton Plant comes from the operation of its three MAN Roland sheetfed presses—one MAN Roland 900 and two MAN Roland 700s. Curtis points out that the quality, reliability, and flexibility of these presses has allowed the plant to be more competitive and to become a low-cost producer for its customers. "The print quality has made us more attractive to customers and prospective customers," he adds.

All three of these presses can print seven colors, plus a coating. This has provided them a lot of needed flexibility to supply store-brand packaging with eye-catching graphics. They have run PMS spot colors, CMYK with special inks, and even six-color systems, such as Hexachrome.

According to Curtis, the Chicago plant was one of the first in the U.S. to install and operate a MAN Roland 900 with its high-speed technology. He credits the MAN Roland presses with a good ability to hold color, with good dot reproduction.

Other features that contribute to the ability to be a low-cost producer include a non-stop feeder that handles various board sizes and a semi-automatic plate loading system that allows plates for the next job to be set in place while the current job is running. In addition, the PECOM Press Center can store up to 5,000 jobs and consolidates all printing functions such as format settings (sheet size, ink key positions, and impression pressure) and quality control (color control, registration, and sheet guiding).

Curtis says the MAN Roland presses were selected in large part by the operators and lead print-department supervisors. The company sent several people to Germany to observe and participate in a 50,000 sheet trial order. The decision to go with the MAN Roland presses was a direct result of this visit.

Dealing with current issues

Caraustar has a number of facilities that serve the narrow- and wide-web flexo markets in order to provide customers a multitude of formats. And although narrow-web flexo printing is finding its place in short production runs and small order quantities, Curtis is comfortable with the plant's ability to maintain a quality differential and provide the best print fidelity for the markets it is in. However, he does cite some issues that need to be managed over the foreseeable future.

One technical issue that has a lot of upside potential but which currently needs careful management is computer-to-plate (CtP) technology. The Chicago plant provides both conventional and CtP output, with more than half being CtP. Curtis credits CtP with providing faster makereadies and an easier time getting into registration on startups.

However, he feels that more work needs to be done in developing standards for the digital formats. The lack of standards contributes to problems that are created in the translation of files throughout various steps in the digital workflow. CtP is faster and easier, but right now, "so much can go wrong," says Curtis.

There is also a question of how fast the technology is moving. Just like PCs, the technology is changing and improving at a fast pace, and a printer needs to decide the right time to make the move.

As offset printing takes its proven quality leadership into the 21st century, it is still incumbent for package printers to blend the new digital technologies into this age-old printing process—just as is being done at Caraustar's Chicago Carton Plant. It is the combination of the new and the old that will be needed to stay a step ahead in the competitive printing industry.

by Tom Polischuk, editor-in-chief