US printer Keystone Paper & Box Company has invested in a Landa S10 press as its first move into digital production.
Celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, Keystone Paper & Box is an award-winning manufacturer of folding cartons and other packaging applications, serving both B2B and B2C customers in the beverage, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer products markets.
It has purchased the Landa S10 Nanographic Printing press as its first move into digital printing. Keystone president James Rutt identified, ‘over half of our jobs in are that run-length sweet spot that Landa handles so well.’ As such, Mr Rutt sees his company moving 50-60% of its high-end beverage, pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer packaging jobs to the Landa S10. This will enhance efficiencies across its production by moving a large number of jobs that run inefficiently on offset to the Landa S10, freeing significant offset press time. In addition, reduction in paper waste and elimination of 1000s of aluminium printing plates per year will result in considerable cost and environmental savings.
Mr Rutt continued ‘In Landa, we found a B1 press that we came to realise was designed from the start with folding carton applications, among others, in mind.
‘When you get a printer such as ourselves with the confidence to put more than half its jobs on a brand new press platform, that says a lot. This is how a technology begins to go mainstream.’
Keystone had been investigating the potential to invest in digital printing for a number of years, although it had until now been unable to identify a technology that suited its requirements.
Mr Rutt’s colleague Bob Papa, vice president of operations at Keystone Paper & Box, added, ‘Other digital presses are too small or too slow, the caliper ranges aren’t high enough, they can’t achieve the colour range Keystone needs, and the quality – especially for complex artwork – is suspect.’
Mr Papa’s evaluation of the Landa S10 included successful runs of a variety of real Keystone jobs, as well as visits to other Landa customers. The ability to make changes at the console, the range of colour that can be achieved, proofing on press, and the S10’s speed, are cited as standout features that impressed Mr Rutt, Mr Papa and their colleagues.
Mr Rutt added, ‘If you only look at the extra ink we buy for our offset presses, it’s huge. We don’t have to do that with the Landa. The ink costs are not a guess with Nanography – we will know exactly what we need.’
Nachum Korman, chief commercial officer at Landa Digital Printing, commented, ‘The marriage of Keystone Paper & Box and the Landa S10 press represents a major step forward for the folding carton market in the US, which like the rest of the world, is working to keep up with demand for shorter and often versioned runs. Keystone recognised the power of our offering, and we have learned a lot from it during our exciting cooperation.’
