CardPak Increases Versatility, Capacity and Efficiency with New Bobst VISIONFOLD

CardPak® Increases Versatility, Capacity and Efficiency with New Bobst VISIONFOLD

Solon, Ohio – (Press Release) – Printer/Packaging manufacturer CardPak, Inc. (www.cardpak.com) has added a new Bobst VISIONFOLD 110-A2 folder-gluer giving themselves greater capacity and versatility, while further streamlining and enhancing the efficiency of their manufacturing operation.

Specializing in creating paperboard alternatives to plastic packaging, CardPak provides their customers with creative packaging solutions that not only give them an advantage on the shelves, but help them meet their goals, and demands of retailers such as Costco and Wal-Mart, of creating “greener” packaging and reducing their carbon footprint.

“With products such as our ClubPak®, SustainPak®, and ShelfPak® providing sustainable alternatives to plastic clamshells, we can typically reduce the plastic materials used by 85%. That makes a significant environmental impact on the sustainability and packaging scorecards.” says CardPak President Tony Petrelli.

In addition to seeking creative, environmentally friendly packaging solutions, CardPak’s customers, like virtually everyone today, are concerned about turnaround times and price. “Efficiency is very important to the sustainability of both our and our customers’ businesses. We put a great emphasis on lean manufacturing in our continual quest to improve the efficiency of our operations,” says Petrelli. “I like to say, ‘We want to do more with less until we are doing everything with nothing.’ While no one can do everything with nothing, my point is that we are continually working to improve the efficiency of our operation. When we think we’ve eliminated all the waste we can, we step back and start looking for more ways to save without jeopardizing the quality of our services or the products we produce.”

The pursuit of optimum efficiency, the desire to offer brand owners additional marketing options and to further diversify their own business were a few of the driving forces behind CardPak’s decision to add the new Bobst VISIONFOLD. “Blister cards were about 90% of our business, now they’re only about 50%. Not because we’ve reduced that business sector, it continues to grow, but because we’ve expanded and grown into other markets by adding capabilities and increasing our manufacturing capacity. Folding carton is one of the areas we’ve expanded into. Adding the VISIONFOLD allowed us to eliminate a bottleneck and allows us to perform more complex folding. The installation also gave us greater versatility within the operation and allowed us to open 20-25% of additional capacity. In addition to letting us put more through the plant, it gives us the ability to respond to our customers’ requests faster."

As well as their environmental packaging products, CardPak provides a wide range of products to their customers including blister cards, clamshell inserts, folding cartons, skin boards, specialty printing and much more.

Because efficiency and lean manufacturing are major focuses of CardPak, the VISIONFOLD’s fast and easy setup and ability to fold a wide range on materials including carton or solid board, up to 8 point stock, as well as mircoflute corrugated paperboard, and other materials, at speeds up to 1,150 ft/min made it the perfect addition to CardPak’s finishing department.

CardPak’s VISIONFOLD is configured to fold a wide a range of products including straight-line and crash-lock cartons, CD/DVD sleeves and much more. CardPak also performs other value-added services with their VISIONFOLD such as the inline application of Electronic Article Surveillance (EAS) devices and insertion operations. “The more we can do in a single pass in any operation, whether it’s manufacturing, material handling or even sales, the more efficient we become overall. Then we can share this efficiency gain with our customers in the form of sustainable pricing and shorter time to market which provides additional savings for customers by reducing products in stock and work in process.”

The addition of the VISIONFOLD is part of a capital investment program which includes the addition of a new state-of-the-art 40 inch, 10-color sheet fed press which will be installed later this year.

-- CardPak, Inc.