How do successful label companies keep their customers coming back time and time again? They provide a quality product and a variety of in-house services to facilitate any customer needs they might encounter. One such label company that has reaped the benefits of this strategy is Koch Label. Located in western Indiana, Koch’s tendency to bring services in-house has provided the company with continued success.
Koch has been supplying labeling for the food, beverage, automotive, and personal care industries for over 56 years. Currently run by company President David L. Scheller, Koch most notably produces quality beverage labels for many brand names.
Koch’s Indiana headquarters is based in a modern 70,000 sq. ft. plant within a suburban business section of Evansville, and is capable of providing customers with the full range of printing and converting services necessary to the label manufacturing process. Employing approximately 200, Koch primarily targets label markets in the United States, Russia, and South America. In order to provide quality products and services to each of these markets, the company maintains an additional operation in Brazil, with a flexo division in Maryland. Kal Grafx, a sister company, is located in Michigan.
At Koch Label, the Maxson MSP Sheeter handles preprinted rolls of both coated and metallized paper and provides a sheet length accuracy of ±0.006 inches (±0.15 mm)
Koch Label can be classified as a converter as well as a printer. The company dedicates a large percentage of their southern Indiana plant’s floor space to gravure printing machinery, and through its partnership with Kal Grafx provides all three types of printing to its customers—rotogravure, flexographic, and lithographic. On the converting end of the business, Koch provides many in-house services such as slitting and rewinding, sheeting in-line on press, die cutting, and guillotine trimming. Roll to roll converting is also an option available to customers.
Due to the recent installation of a nine color roll-to-roll printing press, the company found that the need to bring off line sheeting in-house had come to the forefront. Once the printing job was off the press, possessing the capability to convert rolls of preprinted material into quality sheeted stock would be of great benefit. “We needed the extra flexibility of being able to print roll to roll and slit, or being able to sheet after printing.” notes David L. Scheller, President of Koch Label.
Although Koch previously possessed the ability to sheet in-line on press, sheeting as a stand-alone option would be a new capability that would benefit the company in three ways. As well as adding to overall operational flexibility, in-house sheeting would also offer the company the advantage of precisely controlling their sheet quality. Precise levels of accuracy were vital for Koch’s demanding cut to register applications. By bringing sheeting in-house, the company would have control over sheet length and squareness accuracies. In-house sheeting would also increase the company’s productivity levels tremendously. Sheeting off-line would allow the company to sheet shorter runs with minimal down time necessary for the frequent size changes.
After researching the various sheeters available, Koch Label chose the MSP Sheeter manufactured by Maxson Automatic Machinery Company (Westerly, RI). “We chose the sheeter based on performance and price. The sheeter has the ability to deliver quality stacks on papers without us having to repile,” says Scheller.
The MSP Sheeter is engineered specifically to fulfill the sheeting needs of printers and precision converters. The sheeter can be operated at very high speeds, allowing Koch the production capacity it needs to keep up with the sheeting demand off their press. “We successfully run 75 gsm paper at 500-600 fpm (152-183 mpm) on the Maxson. It does a nice job, we’re very happy with it,” comments Scheller. The company utilizes the sheeter to run both coated and metallized paper.
To optimize the speed of set-up during roll changes, Koch Label selected the Citation shaftless roll stand. This roll stand has a self-loading design and a 6,000 lb. (2727 kg.) load capacity. The Citation shaftless roll stand enables the operator to simply move the roll into place. The roll stand’s easily operated controls allow the operator to then chuck the roll and lift it into position. Roll changes are complete within four minutes, reducing downtime and providing safe and easy roll loading. The roll stand is equipped with automatic tension control to assure the appropriate amount of brake pressure is applied.
The Citation shaftless roll stand allows the Operator to complete roll changes in less than four minutes
The web conditioning unit includes web steering, a decurler section, and splice detector. These components assure that a correctly aligned, decurled web enters the sheeter and unsuitable, spliced sheets are rejected. The result is improved sheet length accuracy, reduced waste amounts, and overall optimized efficiency.
Sheet quality being such an important issue to the company, the MSP Sheeter is equipped with many built-in features to assure accuracy levels. As all of Koch Label’s sheeting is cut to register work, the sheeter utilizes a dual motor drive system to control the sheet length. Comprised of two maintenance-free AC motors and a microprocessor controller, the drive allows the company to sheet to a finished size, saving both labor and lead time in the sheeting production schedule. Operators can input size changes in seconds by utilizing the keypad to enter desired measurements. A high resolution scanner detects the registration marks, guaranteeing cut accuracy. “We can cut to register with a sheet length accuracy of ±0.006 inch (±0.15 mm),” Scheller notes.
The cutter drive includes an automatic squaring feature that eliminates the need to manually adjust for squareness. The addition of a slitter rig to split the web into two streams allows Koch Label to sheet down to a smaller format if necessary.
Productivity is enhanced by the airfoil overlap. This patented device eliminates jam-ups at the point of overlap on lightweight materials. Also helpful is the grid system, which allows Koch Label the option of continuously running the machine. When a full skid needs to be unloaded off the stacker, the grid extends to act as a temporary stacking area. After the full skid is unloaded and an empty skid is in place, the grid is retracted and piling reverts back to the skid, allowing the MSP to be run throughout the skid change.
The MSP Sheeter’s jogging system provides superior pile quality, and Koch is able to trim the labels to a finished format size without having to re-pile. This allows quality to be enhanced and time saved. Air at the pile is introduced to deliver the sheets into the stacker and improve the integrity of the pile.
Koch Label has benefited from their Maxson sheeter purchase in many ways. The company no longer needs to repile before trimming, has added to their list of services for their customers, and can now sheet off-line as well as in-line. All these factors allow the company more control over quality, production time, and on-time order commitment.
Constantly upgrading the services the company provides has allowed Koch Label to hold the competition at bay in the high-end label printing industry. In addition to customers from all over the United States, Koch Label looks forward to expanding their Russian and South American overseas operations through a service facility to be based in Brazil. Providing this winning portfolio of high quality services can only propel Koch Label to success now and for years to come.
Reprinted from The Sheeting Monitor, June 1997
