Rolling Meadows, Ill. – Komori America recently completed the installation of a six-color Lithrone GX40 (GLX640) at Nosco®, a full-service packaging solutions provider serving a roster of household brands in a variety of industries. Headquartered in Gurnee, IL, Nosco is a subsidiary of Holden Industries, Inc., which is a 100 percent employee-owned company. Nosco became familiar with the advanced technology and reliability Komori presses deliver when the company acquired two companies that were already operating Komori presses. Understanding value, total cost of ownership and product lifecycle management are important to Nosco when investing in conventional print technology. Through its recent company acquisitions, Nosco gained an enlightened first-hand experience with Komori’s low maintenance, minimal downtime and productivity performance, leading to the selection of the GLX640 over competitive machines being considered.

“We have aggressive growth targets and with this press we are able to meet them,” said Russ Haraf, president of Nosco. “We looked at several options, even some used options. We chose a new Komori Lithrone GX40 because Komori’s value proposition is aligned with an industry where the product lifecycle is changing rapidly. You are no longer making a 20-year investment because it isn’t cost effective. The older presses can’t keep up. A company must continuously improve efficiencies related to cycle times, lean initiatives and product launches. Komori gets that and advances its technology to stay in step with a bar that keeps getting raised.”

Since purchasing the GLX640, the company has seen a 15 percent increase in capacity from the press it replaced without any additional direct labor, according to Chris Rauscher, director of operations at Nosco. Significant productivity improvements have been noted as well. In addition to extremely stable printing at the 18,000 sheets per hour maximum printing speed, even with heavy stock, the GLX640 delivers both exceptional print quality and enhanced agility for color changeovers. Both high-end print quality and speed are particularly important to Nosco as the company produces all types of packaging for leading companies in the personal care, natural health, confectionery and pharma markets.

Haraf also notes that the ability to access KomoriKare’s 24/7 service team shortens lead time for the parts and supplies needed to stay at top performance. “Komori’s open platform allows quick and widespread access to parts and supplies, and enables us to do a lot of our own maintenance, improving uptime reliability,” said Haraf.

“Three tenets are the core on which all Komori products are based—product reliability, outstanding print quality and substrate flexibility. Komori is dedicated to helping its customers navigate the changing market landscape, so we are very honored to be chosen to be a strategic partner with Nosco as they take advantage of all the GLX640 has to offer in meeting their bottom-line goals,” said Meishi Tsuya president of Komori America.