PennPac Expands with Bobst
- Published: May 06, 2010
MANHEIN, PA | PennPac Co., a flexible packaging film provider and contract slitting company, has installed a high-speed, compact Titan ER610 cantilever slitter as part of a multi-year capital equipment upgrade program for its slitting and rewinding operations. The company, dedicated to providing flexible solutions for its customers, also has recently confirmed an order for a 2.5-m-wide Atlas CW800 slitter/rewinder, with individual rewind stations. PennPac believes these new additions will help it continue to offer the reliability and flexibility its customers need and deserve.
PennPac was established in 1995 and processes flexible packaging films destined for printing as well as laminating for flexible packaging materials. PennPac’s products are used in food handling, packaging, and other end-user applications and are applied as packaging for snack foods, breads, CD and box overwraps, roll labels, and more.
“My first experience with a Titan slitter was when we bought a second hand SR5 machine a couple of years ago,” explained Bill Palmer, president & CEO. “We had the machine spec upgraded through Atlas and the local Bobst Group North America customer service & support team in Charlotte, NC, which was quite an investment. The slitter performed extremely well, so it was a very worthwhile project but we realized soon after that to further grow the business, we needed more of the latest high-speed slitting technology from Titan to replace our older equipment. Re-building equipment is not an option in today’s competitive, high server demands of the marketplace,” he continued.
Keeping in mind the needs of his customers and the industry demands, Palmer compared two or three other slitter manufacturers and confirmed the order for a new 1650-mm (65-in.) wide Titan ER610 slitter during the summer of 2009. Palmer was delighted to have the machine installed and commissioned in September 2009.
“We have been so impressed with the performance of the new ER610, but our customers are even happier! The slit reel quality is far superior to what we were able to deliver in the past with the older machines—and we can now schedule our production on a ‘make-to-order’ basis, reducing the need for excessive finished goods inventories,“ Palmer further explained.
PennPac’s dedication to providing flexible solutions to end-users, converters, and suppliers remains unwavering. To meet increasing demand for wider width rolls and larger rewind diameters, PennPac has decided to invest in a larger Atlas CW800 secondary slitter as well and confirmed the order at the end of last year. The new Atlas slitter will run at speeds of up to 1,000 mpm (3,300 fpm) with a maximum rewind diameter of 1,000 mm (39 in.) and was installed and commissioned during April.
“The performance of the ER610 has given us so much confidence in Atlas and Titan slitting technology that we had no hesitation in buying the larger Atlas machine from Bobst Group. At PennPac, it’s all about what will meet our customers’ needs—and these machines will help us to do just that,” he concluded.
