(August 21, 2008) California printer installs multitasking 7-color perfector with UV coater to handle folding carton workload and drive down costs.

Tom Wynne figures the first three manroland presses worked so well at Fleetwood-Fibre Packaging & Graphics, the fourth shouldn't be any different.  Responding to changing market conditions, the VP of Manufacturing for the City of Industry, California printer recently added a ROLAND 700 Hi-Print press to handle the company's high-end folding carton work.

"This is our fourth ROLAND 700 press in the last 11 years," Wynne said.  "It        replaced a 4-color press with coater that was only four or five years-old.  Several years ago, 75 percent of our folding carton business was 4-color or less.  Today it is just the opposite as we add more higher-end work of 5-colors or more.  We couldn't keep the 4-color press busy but we have plenty of work for an older ROLAND 700 6-color press and this one."


Besides turning out higher-end, upscale carton work, a key issue for Wynne in the decision to purchase the new ROLAND 700 was to drive down operating costs.  "This new press can help us do that in many ways."

"We did consider other press manufacturers," added Wynne.  "Looking at our      current business and what we need to handle it, the flexibility along with time and waste-saving features designed in the ROLAND 700 Hi-Print made a lot of sense.  We have all of the Quick-Change features for faster make-readies and less paper waste."

35-year manroland shop expands business

One of California's largest independent print operations (over $70 million in sales for 2007), Fleetwood-Fibre Packaging & Graphics was formed in 2002.  Fleetwood merged with Fibre Containers, a 54-year-old company that has run manroland presses in its folding carton plant for 35 years.  The firm now operates from two side-by-side plants totalling 250,000 sq. ft., producing work for 2,000-some clients in virtually all types of industries. 

The bulk of Fleetwood-Fibre's overall business is still corrugated.  Wine boxes,   agricultural and displays are produced in one of its facilities and folding carton rules in the other building.  Here, the manroland presses run labels for displays while, primarily, producing a growing percentage of high-end carton work for personal care products, cell phone accessories, medical-pharmaceutical packaging and   upscale food packaging, and floral delivery.

Press capabilities with a 'greener' future

Fleetwood-Fibre's ROLAND 700 has a perfector in-between the first and second units and can go from straight-to-perfecting mode in less than a minute.  Several features include automatic format setting, automatic ink/roller blanket washers,  remote-control inking, Automatic Plate Loading (APL), and automatic sheet size-and-thickness adjustment.

"Perfecting and the in-line UV coater is a huge plus for us," Wynne reiterates, while keeping in mind how this press will help him pursue new business.  "It will cut plenty of time off many projects, and we'll be doing it all in-house.  The other   automated features on the ROLAND 700 also save a lot of time, plus substrate for start-up, which means less waste handling and lower disposal costs, too.  On the energy side, if a job now goes through in one pass instead of three, you're using considerably less energy to deliver each job."