Hold ‘Em, Fold ‘Em

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 existing equipment compared to the gains in purchasing new equipment.

The third and probably most important question that all potential and existing companies ask themselves is “Will my supplier be around for the long haul?”. The educated customer who appreciates service and support after the sale knows that this security can be found in a well-established supplier.

Jim McDonald, ADI/PDM Trade Group—When considering a new folder/gluer, the customer must consider the substrate to fold and glue, production speeds, and support from the machinery builder.

Ron Brajkovich, product manager - folding and gluing/blanking, Brandtjen and Kluge—Narrowing the field of choices can easily be handled by dissecting your own jobs—identifying the work load, makeready requirements, run lengths, and turn times will narrow the field of choices to equipment-specific, individual needs.

Ultimately, if a customer truly considers his own work, capability requirements, run lengths, and turn times for the product, the world of available machines will be narrowed to a few specific machines that meet his specific needs. Once you have narrowed the field of options you can add value to your own purchase by selecting a manufacturer with a reputation for excellence that will be there to support your efforts long after the purchase.

Tim Kirkland, eastern region sales manager, Brandtjen & Kluge—The top three [factors] would be capacity, capability, and turnaround. Those would be driven by type of product, complexity of product, and average run length. The most critical machine features are those that reduce makeready, promote flexibility, and reduce turn time.

Capacity: With run lengths dropping, and complexity increasing, per-hour gross speed specifications don’t say much about a folder/gluer’s practical capacity. A profitable broad-market folder/gluer today is one that can run a high number of pieces per shift, per operator, regardless of complexity.

Capability: Anymore, profit margin is not so much defined by product type or market, but by being able to take in the right job at the right time.

Turnaround: Your customer doesn’t care about your speed, but certainly cares about your turn time.

Steve Leibin, sales manager, Matik North America—Three important selection factors are ease of changeover/set ups, versatility, and quality of construction. Finishing departments are being effected by short-runs. Folder/gluers need to be able to changeover quickly and easily to enable finishers to run more jobs in a shift. In addition to being asked to produce more quicker, finishers are being challenged to produce new and different designs as well as to provide value-added capabilities such as inserting CDs, pharmaceutical inserts, or applying windows into cartons during the folding & gluing operation. Folder gluers need to be versatile to be able to produce a wide range of cartons.

Tom Kane, business development specialist, paper and paperboard converting, Nordson Corp.

• The flexibility and/or modularity of the folder/gluer to be able to adapt to diverse carton types and to be able to expand system capability as manufacturing needs change and grow.

• Having knowledgeable service and support for the folder/gluer and its various components readily available.

• The ability to specify equipment/vendors to OEMs for specialized components on the folder/gluer, such as adhesive application equipment or data reporting systems. pP

Other Resources

American International Machinery www.aim-inc.com
Brausse www.brausse.com
Heidelberg www.heidelberg.com
Robatech www.robatechusa.com
Roberts PolyPro www.robertspolypro.com