Left to right: Mike Miller (VP of Manufacturing), Tom Ayala (plant manager), Tom Miller (President/CEO) and Andrew Vale (VP of Sales).
As the pharmaceutical industry continues to raise its quality packaging standards and is often asked to update its boxed government regulations, Platinum Press has been upgrading its internal systems, procedures, and equipment to adapt to the quickly changing environment for folding cartons. Its management team is taking advantage of new press technology, which provides quicker changeovers and increased throughput.
After putting a number of presses to the test, Platinum was impressed with the Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 perfector press, enough so that it purchased two: a Rapida 106 eight-color perfector with coater and a Rapida 106 five-color perfector. Both arrived at Platinum’s modern 220,000 sq ft facility in Fort Worth, TX recently.
“These two new presses are faster and more efficient than the two presses we are retiring,” says Tom Miller, CEO. “They allow us to increase our capacity and throughput and optimize our quality and speed levels so that we can transition between jobs, which is critical in our case. We are able to switch between printed literature and cartons on the same piece of equipment, which we were not able to do in the past. After a thorough inspection, we firmly believe the Koenig & Bauer Rapida presses are cutting-edge equipment that allow us to deliver even greater value to our pharmaceutical customers.”
As the pharmaceutical industry transitions from long-run orders produced quarterly to smaller, more frequent batch ordering, Platinum is addressing its client’s needs with faster production of significantly smaller run sizes of five to 15,000 orders of printed components like inserts, printed literature labels, or cartons. Pharmaceutical manufacturers are also faced with frequent modifications to the content of the printed components; as such they only have a finite time to use their existing inventory until it has to be switched. Add to that the strict government regulations of quality control checks that increase the costly process. Having the new Koenig & Bauer Rapida press systems to change over jobs more quickly and reduce set up between jobs is a huge benefit for Platinum and its customers.
“Our operators are so excited to have the ability to pre-set certain job parameters on press,” says Michael Miller, VP of Manufacturing. “The time to set up between jobs is significantly less due to the Rapida press’ features. We have historical data from past jobs and the press sets up the job at a push of the button to those previous parameters. It allows us to switch jobs in a matter of minutes. This is significantly reducing our waste, and our set up time, which are savings that we can pass along to our customers.”
In ordering its two Rapida 106 perfector presses, Platinum took an assessment of its current work and what it anticipates in the future to configure each press accordingly. “Our belief is that sheetfed offset technology from Koenig & Bauer fits our business best,” says Andrew Vale, VP of Sales. “These presses provide us with new opportunities and allow us to gain additional business here in the U.S. It’s a very significant piece of machinery offering enhanced efficiencies and unmatched quality. Our entire team of 229 employees is excited to welcome this new press solution offering innovation and excellence.”
