In-Plant Pharmaceutical Giant Boosts Packaging Output with Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 11-Print Unit Perfector Press

Named one of the five best nasal irrigation systems by U.S. doctors, NeilMed Pharmaceutical’s sinus rinse kit is a leading product sold in grocery stores and by druggists and other medical distributors. Its flagship products--NeilMed SINUS RINSE and NeilMed NasaFlo Neti Pot — are easy-to-locate along store shelves due to the carton’s elaborate packaging. Each box is embellished with a bright blue kettle that is UV coated along with other important messaging on the box and a photo of Nina Mehta, who co-founded the company. It’s imperative that each box, sitting side-by-side on store shelves, entices customers, maintains color consistency, and reflects the quality of the product inside.

As the company continues to grow and expand, its management team decided to upgrade its pressroom with a new Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 41-inch 11-unt perfector press from their current Koenig & Bauer Rapida 105 41-inch six-color press. This will be NeilMed’s third Koenig & Bauer Rapida press in the last decade.

“Having an in-plant press production department at our Ontario, CA headquarters near Los Angeles allows us to have complete control over the high quality, speed, and efficiency of our carton output,” says Dr. Ketan C. Mehta, NeilMed’s founder. “Being in the pharmaceutical industry, we are tightly regulated. Our production operators expertly print our packages. We took a proactive approach and decided to increase our throughput by printing our entire run in-line with a perfector press, print our package instructions, inserts, and leaflets roll-to-sheet with a Mabeg reel sheeter, and enhance the look of our product packages with a Vinvoil cold foil system. Having this press technology and optimized solution created by Koenig & Bauer will save us time and money.”

But the biggest impact of operating the new Rapida press, says Khan, is in the increased quality of its packaging. Having the Koenig & Bauer ErgoTronic Color Control automatic color measuring system on its press, says Khan, provides the operator with the measurement, control, and monitoring of ink densities and L*a*b* values through its ErgoTronic camera that is constantly measuring registration.

Mehta and his team believe the new press will increase productivity by double digits and substantially decrease makeready times. This can be attributed to operating a new perfector press that quickly runs the job through the press once in a single pass. More savings will be achieved with the Vinfoil cold foil system, which will provide cost effective eye-catching effects and brand protection to increase NeilMed’s visibility. Mabeg reel sheeter allows NeilMed non-stop operation to take advantage of lower cost web paper rolls by quickly sheeting and delivering cut sheets in-line directly to the pickup roller of the Rapida press.

“Each time we place another order for a new Koenig & Bauer press, we add more firepower to our pressroom,” says Dr. Mehta. “Our successive Koenig & Bauer presses are key components to our workflow. We continue to add Koenig & Bauer presses due to their expert output and operation as well as their service and support team, in which local service technicians ensure complete satisfaction and operation of the new press, along with the attention received from our sales manager Jurgen Gruber. From an in-plant perspective, printing our own packaging is much better than outsourcing to another printer. Our consistent vision is to ensure that our packaging is of the highest quality, monitor our workflow, and have the flexibility to make changes to our packaging.”

SOURCE: Koenig & Bauer

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