Beneco Packaging and subsidiary SoOpak have opened a second production facility in Scarborough, Ontario. Once fully operational, the new facility will offer complete design, manufacturing and finishing production that will complement its other plant in Brampton, Ontario. Beneco focuses on traditional packaging for the food, beverage and personal care industries, while SoOpak is an online service for clients who typically require short runs or specialty packaging. 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 die-cutter, and a Heidelberg-MK Diana Easy Folder/Gluer.
“Our new equipment gives us a complete production line-up, which allows us to serve our customers right away. We’ll continue to add pieces as we settle into our new facility,” said Carol Jiang, owner of Beneco Packaging. “There’s a need in the market for short-run, specialty packaging. We’ve worked very hard in the past several years to create this online environment for customers. Therefore, we needed a printing press and finishing workflow that could serve the short-run market – meaning fast makeready machines, but can also quickly produce our typical packaging work that involve longer runs at higher speeds.”
After an extensive search for equipment, Jiang chose Heidelberg as her vendor partner. “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,” she recalled. “It’s really about the people. It was critical for me that my staff be properly trained. We can have the best equipment, but if we can’t optimize the technology investment, we won’t be competitive.”
The Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102-6+L is equipped to handle both short runs with quick turnarounds, as well as longer run work. Equipped with the Prinect Press Center XL 2 operating system with the Wallscreen XL, jobs are pre-defined as they’re output from pre-press – 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 colour 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.
At speeds of 16,500 impressions per hour, longer runs aren’t an issue. As well, the press comes with an IST UV system for special-effect printing and high-gloss coating. “The quality of the products coming off this press is beyond expectation,” Jiang added. “Producing consistent, vibrant colour, we can now create whatever our customers demand. We’re 100% complete in our new building just yet, but in only a few short months we’ve ramped up production. It’s been a very successful start up for Beneco, SoOpak and Heidelberg.”
Beneco Packaging invests in Heidelberg technology to open second production facility
