Offset Printing
18,964sph net equals 127,625 sheets in less than 7 hours
Monday 17. November 2014 - Record-breaking production with Rapida 106 at Winston Packaging in North Carolina
KBA North America congratulated Winston Packaging, a fourth-generation family-owned printed paperboard packaging company located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, for its record-setting performance.
This world record breaking attempt took place on 11 August on the company’s six-color Rapida 106. The press ran 127,625 sheets of 74 x 106cm (29.5 x 41.5in) paperboard in less than seven hours with an average speed of 18,964sph.
The average output of the Rapida 106 which can run at speeds of up to 20,000sph was thus higher than the maximum output of any other press in this format class. James Gordon, president and CEO of Winston Packaging: “We are proud to be operating this high-performance Rapida press at our facility. This amazing record reinforces our purchase decision to go with a KBA and clearly shows that we have the most productive medium-format press on the global market.”
Several factors helped to determine the final result of this new world job production record at Winston Packaging starting with a truckload of paperboard that ran well on the press and the firm’s best press crew working that day. James Gordon: “We’ve run this same product many times previously but never achieved much higher than 17,500sph average run speed for an entire eight to ten-hour shift. Our talented press operators made it happen using all of the tools available to them on the press.”
Not only did Winston produce its record-breaking world job production record on its Rapida 106 in August 2014, but the company was also recognized by the Paperboard Packaging Council (PPC) for achieving a major milestone for safety as it reached 500,000 hours without an incident (lost time accident).
The record-breaking Rapida came on-line in January 2013 and was Winston Packaging’s first KBA press. Gordon: “This press combines the best of both worlds: very fast set-ups and best-in-class run speeds. After receiving sufficient training on the press, our press operators have been able to use the high level of automation that they didn’t have before. Our customers are quite impressed with the Rapida as well.” Gordon and his entire family of employees at Winston Packaging could not be more proud of their world record. “Being a third-generation owner of a 103-year-old family business, I can say with confidence that this is the first world record we have ever achieved, at least during my 36 years of service,” says Gordon.
Winston Packaging was founded in 1911 in downtown Winston-Salem as a commercial printing shop by Alexander G. Gordon. He was a journeyman bookbinder and entrepreneur who promoted the use of color in the printing industry. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. became one of the company’s largest customers after its inception and remained so for 82 years. John R. Gordon succeeded his father as company president in 1953. His experience as an industrial engineer helped bring new technologies to the company. He added offset printing presses and improved the workflow processes and management techniques. Over the years, Winston Printing shifted its operation from commercial printing to printed-paperboard packaging, and, since 1999, has done business as Winston Packaging. The company has 46 regular employees and designs and makes paperboard packages for consumer products for a wide range of industries in the USA and Canada.
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