Top notch technology to stay ahead of the competition

About Walnut Packaging

Walnut Packaging Inc. is a Farmingdale, New York, USA based and 1962 founded converter of bags. Their product range compromises die cut shopping bags, reclosable poly bags, round bottom bags, flap in & out bags, perforated bags, silverware bags, wicketed bags, produce bags, header bags, and ice bags. Besides Polyethylene, they use Polypropylene, laminates, and OPP. While some of their bags are plain, most get printed, and therefore Walnut Packaging requires state-of-the-art printing presses.

The challenge

With flexo printing making quality leaps in the past decade, and challenging gravure and offset in terms of printing quality, of course the demand from customers increased too. Jose Alvarado Jr., President of Walnut Packaging: "We needed more efficient and sophisticated printing capabilities and faster time to market as the market clearly demanded this from us! Our approach always had been to utilise top notch technology to stay ahead of the competition." The company prints a broad variety of different jobs with length from as little as 25,000 feet (7620 metre) up to some million feet. This clearly called for a flexo printing press that is capable of economically printing both short and long runs.

The journey

When researching the market for printing presses that meet with their clearly defined high
demands, Walnut Packaging shortlisted only few manufacturers. One of them was SOMA, who just recently took on the North American market, after successfully serving the highly demanding and very diversified European market. Walnut Packaging always put high emphasis on state-of-the-art technology. They know that their customers appreciate their high quality, service, fast turnarounds on orders and the capability of printing short runs. In order to strengthen these crucial key factors, they were looking for a partner who could provide a flexo press that helps them to help their customers. That's exactly why Walnut Packaging decided for a SOMA printing press.

The solution

Being deeply impressed with the wide range of high quality options SOMA offers, the decision wasn't easy for the New York based company. At the end they opted for a SOMA Flex Premia 1450-8 EG. SOMA's top selling printing press is equipped with 8 sleeve based printing units, has a max printing width of 1450 mm (57.1 inch), a repeat ranging between 400-915 mm (15.7-36 inch), and a top speed of 500 m/min (1640 fpm). Walnut also purchased a Flexmont 1450 S plate mounter for quickly and accurately mounting new print jobs on the sleeves. The system ensures precise plate mounting with a high reproducible accuracy. The printing plates are positioned either by means of registration marks or microdots. The maximum width is 1450 mm (57.1 inch).

The result

Jose Alvarado Jr. can confirm a significant increase in quality since the installation of the SOMA equipment. What's more is that he is very satisfied with the increased performance the SOMA flexo press offers, especially due to faster running speeds and very quick turnovers. For the future he expects SOMA to "remain our partner in our growth with additional equipment to expand our production capabilities. SOMA can provide continuous equipment updates and service to keep all running at its best at all times."

Contact

Walnut Packaging Inc.
Mr. José Alvarado
www.wpiplasticbags.com
Farmingdale
USA