Rolling Meadows, IL—Komori America—Komori announced that Nosco®, a full-service packaging solutions provider, has purchased a nine-color Lithrone GX40RP advance (GLX940RP advance) dedicated two-sided press, with coater and LED-UV curing. Headquartered in Gurnee, Illinois, Nosco is a subsidiary of Holden Industries, Inc., which is a 100% employee-owned company. Investment in the new press is part of Nosco’s bold growth plans to scale up folding carton production at its Wisconsin-based Packaging Innovation Center by 125 million units in 2023. In support of that goal, the GLX940RP advance is uniquely configured to meet the specific needs of the company’s rapidly expanding pharmaceutical packaging business, which serves more than 450 of the major pharmaceutical companies across the United States. The GLX940RP advance, a recipient of the industry-renowned InterTech™ Technology Award, is a dedicated two-sided printing press that makes it possible for Nosco to provide up to eight-color printing on the outside and one color on the inside of the package that many pharmaceutical packaging applications require.

“We made the investment in the Komori GLX940RP advance because we are seeing a lot of new growth in the number of drug products coming to the market,” said Craig Curran, president of Nosco. “We needed the extra capacity to support this growth. We chose a Komori press due to our experience with the purchase of the Komori GLX640 in 2018. The productivity of this press has been outstanding. We have great uptime on that machine with little to no maintenance issues. The print quality and color consistency are superb. Our team is confident that this new press will be a winner for us as well. We are particularly excited about its advanced automation features and the non-stop production capability gained with the logistics system that is integrated with the feeder, delivery and press controls, especially since our market has been moving towards longer runs and new products.”

Nosco’s GLX940RP advance is a fully optioned press that includes Komori’s Full-AAPC Asynchronous Automatic Plate Change and KHS-AI learning interface that achieves very short makeready times and significantly reduces paper waste, as well as the PQA-S fully automatic color and register control. The RP method of two-sided printing is a key feature for the packaging market and is only provided by Komori. The RP offset press design does not flip the sheet to print on both sides. Because the sheet does not flip, there is no need for gripper edge waste margin on the tail, no sheet marking, higher printing speed and superior register, even on thick stocks. Generating less waste, better use of print area, fewer consumables, two-sided printing in a single pass and lower energy usage all lead to a smaller carbon footprint and increased market competitiveness.

“We are seeing longer runs from many of our customers and on many new projects, so being able to keep the press running with the feed and the delivery system on it was an important feature,” said Curran. “One of the key drivers for us in purchasing the Komori press was to support these new projects, which I think are revolutionary and will help people lead healthier lives. Our mission at Nosco is to provide packaging that helps our customers make people healthier and saves lives, and this investment allows us to do that by providing the capabilities to meet their needs.”