Wrapping systems: Pen manufacturer upgrades after disaster

A horizontal wrapper individually wraps 40 to 50 writing instruments/min in heat-sealable PP film.

The floods of June 2008 exacted a severe toll on Norwood Souvenir, a manufacturer of imprinted writing instruments. One of its facilities located near the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids, IA, was completely inundated. To continue meeting customers' needs, Norwood decided to relocate its operations to a similar facility in Red Wing, MN.

One important aspect of this successful move was Norwood's replacement wrapping system from Doboy, Inc., a Bosch Packaging Technology co. (www.doboy.com).

With packaging critical to any manufacturing operation to ensure product protection for shipping, storage and shelf display, Norwood required equipment immediately. Supplying a horizontal wrapping machine quickly, Doboy provided a key component of Norwood's new operation, enabling the company to make the facility transition in a very short timeframe.

Norwood used a Doboy Stratus™ horizontal wrapper to individually wrap writing instruments in PP heat-sealable film and wanted to find a comparable wrapping system for Red Wing. It turned to K.C. Boudrie, territory sales manager of Technical Packaging Machinery, Inc. (www.tech-pack.com), a packaging consultant/distributor. Initially, they considered renting a piece of equipment. But consulting with Boudrie, Norwood decided to purchase another Stratus.

"We were able to offer an expedited delivery of seven business days with the Doboy machine," says Boudrie. Currently, the Stratus wraps up to 40 to 50 products/min. But Norwood is considering adding a hopper to the line that make throughput faster.