Barger Packaging, a folding carton manufacturer located in Elkhart, Indiana, recently installed a new MSL sheeter from Maxson Automatic Machinery Co. of Westerly, Rhode Island.
The company, which serves a regional market of customers concentrated within a 300-mile radius of itself, was founded in 1880 and has earned the distinction of being the oldest existing manufacturing plant in Elkhart. Today the company employs 100 and produces a complete line of packaging products, folding cartons, set-up boxes and thin-walled thermoformed trays.
Seventy-five percent of the company’s work is either pharmaceutical- or medical-related for companies like Miles Laboratory and the UpJohn Co. The remaining business comprises folding cartons for hardware items and personal care products.
Barger Packaging’s folding carton converting process includes sheeting, printing, die cutting and gluing. A total of five printing presses are in place, including a 7-color Man Roland press and a 6-color Man Roland press, each with a tower coater. The company has three Bobst die cutters with stripping capabilities, as well as two Bobst folder-gluers and an International folder-gluer.
In addition to converting board stocks ranging from SBS to CCNB to CCNB, Barger Packaging also converts a 60-lb. coated litho stock for its set-up box production.
“Our existing sheeter was 25 years old, and it only operated at speeds of 300 fpm,” explained Ken Pensmith, operations manager for Barger Packaging. “To keep up with our presses, we needed to gain capacity. The cycle time on a new sheeter would allow us to react that much faster,” Pensmith said.
Barger Packaging reviewed several sheeter designs, taking into account the various features and benefits, and ultimately decided on the MSL sheeter from Maxson.
The new sheeter handles rolls up to 56-in. wide and can cut SBS board calipers ranging from 0.014 in. al the way up to 0.024 in. When sheeting CCNB, the MSL handles board stock up to 0.028 in. thick.
At Barger’s request, Maxson developed a pile offset feature, which centers the pile on the skid for ease of handling. “With the pile offset feature, the sheeted stock can go directly onto press without having to be repositioned on a skid by our jogger-aerator,”
Pensmith added, noting that the greatest advantage of the new sheeter has been in the area of flexibility. The sheeter operates at speeds of up to 900 fpm, which represents a threefold increase in production.
“Everyone in the industry is looking to improve lead times,” Pensmith said. “Sheeting is not an impediment now, where in the past, we had a significant backlog in this department.”
By replacing the old sheeter with a high-speed unit, Barger Packaging is poised to better compete with potential to expand into new markets.
Reprinted from Boxboard Containers, January 1995
