Aspen Paper Products Maintains Customer Satisfaction & Margin with New TRESU Flexo Innovator

Powerful, competitive, sustainable—FTA member Aspen Paper Products is boosting output of high-quality paper tabletop products and achieving production efficiencies 15 months after installing a 9-color TRESU Flexo Innovator printing and coating line at its Kansas City, MO plant.

The press utilizes CMYK in the first four decks, followed by a spot color, then units to apply seal-coating for waterproofing and grease resistance. Press components include energy-efficient, unit-to-unit drying stations and a chilling system that manages all the process temperature control requirements to tightly managed specifications. Inline double-sided printing—no turnbar required—affords considerable production efficiencies.

General Manager Troy Walls sees the first new press procured in the firm’s 40-year history as a long-term investment, strategically executed to promote measurable growth. At Aspen Paper Products, it represents a step-change in productivity. As such, it brings challenges, as well as opportunities. This cost-conscious converter dares to push the limits in every aspect of flexographic printing, from plate making, press and register controls, to automatic web inspection and advanced finishing.

Citing fast setup times and stability at high speed, Troy insists the new press is a critical tool to meet the ever-present challenge of satisfying current customers and securing new business. He says, “Our Flexo Innovator enables us to offer rapid response times for large and small volume orders, without compromising on productivity. With the big accounts, we may run 40 rolls at a time, then jump out to run a few rolls for a discount store, then return to the large order. This kind of flexibility is essential to maintaining customer satisfaction as well as margin.”

Strategic Buy

Established in 1977, Aspen Paper Products now employs more than 500 people and produces 400 tons of paper products per day. It is one of the leading U.S. manufacturers of tabletop paper products including plates, cups, bowls and lunch bags. Aspen supports the retail, wholesale club and quick service restaurant markets nationally.

Until May 2017, three flexo presses ran three shifts, five days per week—sometimes seven. In 2016, when it became clear a new press was needed, Aspen Paper Products began examining options, met with several manufacturers and identified at drupa 2016 the solution now put in place.

Simply put, it embraces and shares the message put forth by its press partner: “Flexo has emerged as the printing process that delivers more than ever before—high-quality standards, production speeds and cost-effectiveness. Moreover, inline flexo presses demonstrate the ability to handle jobs formerly printed with gravure presses using water-based inks and coatings on a wide range of substrates.”

Troy lists three essentials his company was looking for—all of which were critical to winning its capital equipment dollars:

• High output and quick setup times, crucial to competitiveness: “We need high speed to supply our largest superstore customers that place orders of up to 500 rolls for their major distribution centers”
• Substrate versatility: “We work with a wide variety of paper thicknesses, from 12-pt. to 26-pt.”
• Inline footprint: “We were determined to install a line configuration, because it allows the operators to be on the ground at all times and work quickly and safely. With our central impression (CI) presses, we were losing time because we needed ladders and hoists to gain access and exchange equipment”

He remembers, “We specified more stations than we needed for any printing job to save makeready time. Idle units can be prepared for the next job while the press is in production. Job changeovers can occur within a few minutes.”
[perfectpullquote align=”full” cite=”Troy Walls, general manager at Aspen Paper Products” link=”” color=”#91636e” class=”” size=””]”Two-sided printing and accurate registration allow us to produce the printed product with backside coating in a single pass and restrict the application of coating to the desired location.”[/perfectpullquote]

Attractive Assets

Other attractions associated with Aspen Paper Products’ new asset:

• Ergonomic features, inline design and an auto-registration system ensure minimal paper waste
• An unwinder and rewinder from MTorres, and a BST eltromat web inspection system support optimum quality assurance
• Automatic ink recirculation facilitates automatic cleaning of the chambers, doctor blades and anilox rollers
• An automatic washup system makes ink changes fast and thorough without operator involvement
• Unit-to-unit air drying provides stability, enabling Aspen Paper Products to achieve consistent quality when printing at up to 2,000 fpm. Fastest speeds are achieved with 60-in. rolls of 20-pt. board, which take three-and-one-half minutes to print
• Faster and easier cleaning and maintenance is made possible by the high level of accessibility of the press units that inline flexo offers
• Startup waste with inline flexo approximates the web length of the press
• TRESU’s enclosed chamber doctor blade systems, with F10 iCon ink supply system, automatically ensure ink supply at constant viscosity, flow-rate and pressure, controlling pH and temperature
  • The chamber doctor blade systems feature a rubber seal system to prevent leakage, while the doctor blades are positioned to avoid anilox wear and stop air entering the chamber
  • Sealed chambers prevent ink from becoming contaminated so excess ink can be safely returned to containers for future use. This closed ink loop also means less evaporation, as well as a more pleasant, presentable pressroom environment. Leakage and emissions are also prevented, while an efficient clamping system enables doctor blade changes in less than two minutes
  • Pressure control prevents micro-foaming at high speeds, eliminating its consequential impact on print quality

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