All I ever wanted for Christmas was a new sheeter, and it came on December 15," says Todd M. Wolf, only half-jokingly. As plant manager for Sheboygan Paper Box Co., Wolf annually gives his bosses a wish list of capital equipment to keep the WI-based folding-carton converter on the leading edge of technology. For several years, that list included a new sheeter to replace the company's aging system. Last year, Wolf got his wish.

Founded in 1923, and run by the Liebl family since 1950, Sheboygan Paper Box (SPB) manufactures packaging for the food, automotive, apparel, household-goods, medical and healthcare industries. Its 105,000-sq-ft plant houses an impressive array of sheetfed-offset presses, diecutters, windowing machines, folder/gluers and prepress systems. Ninety percent of SPB's traditional customers are located within a 300-mile radius, but the converter is also branching out to the retail gift-box market as well as doing some contract finishing to expand sales.

"We try to bring in one new piece of technology each year," agrees Jack R. Liebl, SPB chairman and chief executive officer. "The old system was slowing down our operation."

"It had the capacity but not the accuracy to allow the presses to run at top speed," adds Thomas A. Liebl, president and chief operating officer (and Jack's brother).

So, when SPB managers sought out a new sheeter solution, their search naturally included vendors from all over the world. But ultimately (and somewhat ironically), the winning supplier came from the other side of town—Pemco, a division of Körber Paperlink, located in southwest Sheboygan.

SPB chose to install a new Pemco SHM 1650 dual rotary sheeter. The system employs a synchro-speed cross cutter for high knife loads, an operator-friendly touchscreen, and direct AC drives for automatic digital setting of cut-off length to speed changeovers. It also features a three-bar decurler for greater sheet flatness, in-line embossing capability to create different patterns during sheeting, and a "turbo-charged" motor to run at speeds up to 1,300 fpm—about 15 percent faster than original-OEM rated.

"We've known Pemco since the 1960s," explains Tom Liebl, "but we didn't bring them in until the end of the process to find a new sheeter. We said from Day 1, if it wasn't right, we wouldn't buy any particular sheeter. Now, we have less setup time, it's price competitive, and service was a given since Pemco is right in our backyard."

The improved cut-and-stack quality of materials sheeted on the SHM 1650 provides SPB with several downstream benefits. Accuracies of +/-0.015 in. in cut dimensions translates into better press performance, and flatter cartonstock via decurling results in less prebreaking necessary on the converter's folder/gluers, says Wolf.

"We were the first company to sheet in-house the new 36-pt Forté premium paperboard from MeadWestvaco," he says. SPB has run calipers from 8- to 40-pt on the new system.

"Due to the just-in-time work, our on-demand level of printing and converting, we need to be more flexible to have on-premise sheeting," adds Tom Liebl. "We can't wait two days for delivery of sheets from outside services. Our operators take pride in the Pemco machine; that it's right for Sheboygan Paper Box."

Jack Liebl estimates that less than half of the carton plants in the US do in-house sheeting. "We feel sheeting in-house means our costs are ultimately lower, and Pemco's service has been great. We expect to develop a long-term relationship. The sale of the equipment is only the beginning."