Beneco Packaging and subsidiary company, SoOpak, recently opened a second facility in Scarborough, Ontario. Once fully operational, the new facility will offer a complete design, manufacturing, and finishing production house that will eclipse another Beneco Packaging plant in Brampton, Ontario. The new facility will be home to a new Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L with full automation and UV capabilities, a Heidelberg-MK Promatrix 106 CS diecutter and a Heidelberg-MK Diana Easy folder gluer.
According to Carol Jiang, Owner of Beneco Packaging, “Our new equipment gives us a complete production line up, which allows us to serve our customers right away. We will continue to add pieces as we settle into our new facility.”
Heidelberg Provides the Best People
Beneco Packaging and SoOpak operate as two different entities under one roof. While Beneco focuses on traditional packaging work for the food, beverage and personal care industry, SoOpak is an “online service” for clients who typically have short runs or specialty packaging produced.
“There is a need in the market for short run, specialty packaging that needs to be served. We have worked very hard in the past several years to create this online environment for customers,” said Jiang. “Therefore, we needed a printing press and finishing workflow that could serve the short run environment — meaning fast makeready machines — but also ready to produce our typical packaging work from Beneco without sacrifice, which are longer runs with higher speeds.”
After an extensive search for equipment, Jiang chose Heidelberg as her partner vendor. “As I entered into this process, I became increasingly more comfortable with the professional approach Heidelberg took with my business plan. Heidelberg had the complete package, and we worked together for equipment needs, application training, and service requirements,” states Jiang. “It is really about the people. It was critical for me that my staff be properly trained. We can have the best equipment, but if we cannot optimize the technology investment, we will not be competitive.”
Speedmaster CX 102 – Producing Whatever Customers Demand
The Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L is equipped to handle both short runs with quick turnaround and longer run work. Equipped with Prinect Press Center XL 2 operating system with the Wallscreen XL, jobs are pre-defined as they are output from prepress, which greatly cuts down on job transfer and loading. Once at press, the job data simultaneously initiates a “job change”, which may include blanket and roller washes, automatic plate loading with AutoPlate Pro and spectral color measurement with Prinect Axis Control.
One of the technologies unique to Heidelberg is “Push to Stop” technology, which enables all jobs to be autonomously changed over without operator intervention and will continue to print until the operator interrupts it. This software system reduces the number of operating steps during a job change and enables all operators to achieve uniform results.
Producing at speeds of 16,500 impressions per hour, longer runs are not an issue for the Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L. As well, the press is complete with an IST UV system for “special effect” printing and “high gloss” coating. According to Jiang, “The quality of the products coming off this press is beyond expectation. Producing consistent, vibrant color, we can now create whatever our customers demand.”
Flexible and Easy to Operate
Once the work is printed, then the finishing must take place, which is equally important for Beneco and SoOpak. Therefore, Beneco invested further with the Heidelberg-MK products in order to meet their demands. According to Jiang, “We are very pleased with the performance of our Promatrix CS. Flexible and easy to operate with automation meeting our needs.”
The new Heidelberg-MK Diana Easy is a great addition to the facility. “It is the right size, has great flexibility, and we can also add options as required in the future,” mentions Jiang. “We are not complete in our new building, but in a few short months, we have ramped up to complete production. It has been a very successful start-up for Beneco, SoOpak, and Heidelberg.”
Ahead of the Curve
Beneco Packaging and SoOpak have been operating in the Brampton, Ontario area for fourteen years. In the past seven years, the company has seen growth in the double digits, giving Beneco Packaging a spot in Canada’s top 500 companies in each of those years. With the new facility and production falling into place, moving forward seems to be in the nature of Jiang. According to Jiang, “Now, the project turns to making this technology advantageous to our clients, by offering faster turn-around, and reduced delivery times — all with improved quality products.”
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