Established in 1961, McLean Packaging is a turnkey provider of packaging solutions for the beauty, personal care, confectionary and other sectors. Comprised of over 200 employees across three facilities totaling nearly 500,000 square feet, the company specializes in rigid set boxes, folding cartons, corrugated displays and thermoformed solutions. Unlike many packaging solutions suppliers, McLean’s continued investment in gluing, printing and other ancillary infrastructure allows it to create packages entirely within its own organization – a differentiator that yields efficiency, consistency and streamlined customer collaboration. McLean Packaging is headquartered in Moorestown, NJ, with additional production facilities in Pennsauken, NJ and Nazareth, PA.
Press investment
McLean Packaging has now installed a Speedmaster XL 106-8+LYY-1+L with Push to Stop technology from Heidelberg at its Moorestown, NJ folding carton manufacturing facility. Equipped with UV and Prinect Inpress Control 2, the new machine has helped to significantly streamline production since its incorporation into McLean’s workflow.
McLean Packaging, seeking to upgrade one of its older presses, first considered the XL 106 after it was recommended by one of its press operators. “Our pressmen, who have worked on Heidelberg machines previously, insisted that we take a look at the Speedmaster when we were making our next purchase,” said Joe Fenkel, CEO of McLean Packaging. Despite not having purchased from Heidelberg in over 50 years, McLean Packaging zeroed in on the Speedmaster XL 106 for three key reasons: advanced automation and technology needed for shorter makereadies, flexibility to handle a wide range of substrates, and advanced technology like Prinect Inpress Control 2 for effortless color consistency.
“Our market is driving more and more to be makeready efficient; run lengths aren’t that long anymore. We needed to get more efficient in our makeready, and we had the right options with Heidelberg to address those issues,” said Mike Pasciolla, Operations Manager. One of the key technologies aiding in McLean’s shorter makeready times is Intellistart 2, an integrated software system for effective job preparation, which greatly reduces the number of operating steps during a job change. Additionally, the XL 106 is equipped with AutoPlate Pro, a reliable and fully automatic plate change that controls precise plate feeding and identification for exact and fast registration at the start of each job.
Servicing name brands from food to high-end cosmetics and perfumes, McLean Packaging prints on a wide range of challenging substrates – from 80# text weight to 24pt. SBS to rigid plastics and metallic boards. “We’ll often run different jobs on multiple substrates in one shift, which would cause us some issues with job changeover on our older press. Now, we’re seamlessly transitioning from substrate to substrate. The XL 106 has proven that it can do a lot more than any other machine in the market,” said Pasciolla.
In addition to running a wide gamut of substrates, McLean Packaging faces challenging demands for color quality and consistency from its high-end clients. “Our customers expect the best in regard to the color accuracy on every job, and the tools installed on the press are really crucial in ensuring that we’re meeting the requirements our customers set for us,” said Fenkel. McLean relies on Prinect Inpress Control 2 for exceptional color consistency – the industry’s leading inline spectrophotometer that measures and controls color and registers on the fly at any speed, delivering the first measurable result in less than 60 sheets. By automating the color control process, sheets get up to color much faster at the beginning of each job than with McLean’s previous press.
With the efficiencies it has gained in makereadies, the added run speed of the press, and easier changeover from job to job, McLean Packaging has been able to open capacity – enabling the company to take on new jobs. Almost a year after installation, McLean Packaging could not be more satisfied with its new Speedmaster press. “It’s proven that it’s the best machine we’ve ever seen. We’ll definitely be looking to Heidelberg again in the future,” said Fenkel.
Flawless Start-Up
In addition to the high quality produced by the Speedmaster, McLean Packaging has been impressed with the professionalism and level of support from Heidelberg’s SystemService team. “I’ve installed several presses from various manufacturers, and the install and start-up of this machine was so effortless and immediate. All of my operators told me this is how all of Heidelberg’s installations go,” said Business Development Manager, Rob Watts. The installation was so smooth in fact that McLean started running live production work mere weeks after the first parts for the machine hit the production floor.
McLean Packaging also signed on for Heidelberg’s Predictive Monitoring and Saphira Consumables when it purchased the XL 106. Predictive Monitoring actively sends alerts should there appear to be something wrong with the machine – stopping issues before they become larger problems. The machine has been running so reliably for the last 11 months, however, that McLean has yet to need the service.
