Any way you slice it

RF Converting inventories a rainbow of paper products in quantities that support customers' particular markets.

By Associate Editor Laura McCluskey -- Converting Magazine, 11/1/2001

David Field inspects the 92-in. Jagenberg drum winder before the next job is ompleted. www.berlowphoto.com Arturo Trujillo, sheeter operator, makes a few last minute adjustments on the 67-in. Strachan Henshaw precision sheeter before the paper begins to pass through the machine. www.berlowphoto.com

With a reputation for offering a wide variety of papers, Russell-Field Paper Co., Inc., performed contract converting on the side, for select customers who knew about the service by word of mouth. But with pressure on paper and print providers to increase service and cut response times for customers, Russell-Field responded by officially creating RF Converting, the contract converting division of Russell-Field Paper in December 2000.

To add to the excitement of the new division, Russell-Field also relocated to Lemont, Ill., for a more centrally located facility. This 150,000-sq-ft facility provides easy access to the largest printing markets in the Midwest, which can eliminate redundant freight moves for some paper mills. With converters in mind, Russell-Field's new location allows the mills to provide better service to its customers by using Russell-Field's space to provide "just-in-time" slitting or sheeting.

New building, new opportunity
"The new facility provides us many internal benefits: streamlined productivity, greater efficiencies and economies of scale, increased warehouse space, room for additional manufacturing equipment, new office space, state-of-the-art communication/data wiring, etc," says David Field, executive vp of Russell-Field Paper Co.

The new building also provides many external benefits with improved service levels to customers with increased machine capacity and expanded warehouse capacity, and greater access to major highways providing improved logistics and ground transportation.

By expanding operations to service contract converting, Russell-Field makes better use of the new facility. Some manufacturers are outsourcing their converting jobs in the Midwest and spending a lot of time and money by sending their product through the city of Chicago to a far away place to be converted. After being converted, they are sending their product back through Chicago to be distributed to printers.

"These are redundant freight moves, which translate into longer leadtimes and an increased cost of distribution," says Field. In these competitive markets, margins are being hurt and customers are becoming dissatisfied. RF Converting is competing by customizing a JIT sheeting and/or slitting program for individual customers. This can help eliminate redundant costs and improve customer-service levels. "We have the experience, facility, manufacturing and warehousing to become the predominant choice for outside converting in the Midwest," says David.

When the RF Converting division was formed, specific positions within the company were created to support it. "These new positions include converting customer service, quality control personnel and added staff in the production-planning department," says David. The new positions help spread the word out to the market about RF Converting's high quality of converting, convenient location and strength of the Russell-Field name, he explains.

"In fact, even though we see the paper industry in a down market right now, the advantages to using RF Converting are easy to see and further growth is expected," says David.

Service, service, service!
RF Converting provides tailored converting and logistical support to paper mills, film manufacturers, pressure-sensitive coaters, and large printers. On top of that, it can offer support to current business or assist in the launch of new market programs.

Converting other companies'/manufacturers' products into custom-sized forms with its in-house slitting and sheeting departments is RF Converting's main focus. "All converting work we do for our customers is shipped in their name and kept in strict confidence," he says.

"Our sheeting department converts precision sheets in folio or digital size formats on any of our three precision sheeters. We convert these products for paper mills, merchants, converters, large printers, in-house print shops and more," explains David. Product thicknesses range from 25-lb lightweight papers to 20-pt SBS folding-carton, metallized papers, BOPP films and custom-laminated substrates such as holographic film/SBS. Finished materials are either packaged in cartons or bulk packed on skids ready for the press.

RF Converting uses three Strachan Henshaw Machinery sheeters (now supplied by Körber Paperlink North America) to complete these tasks. Two are 1400 Series models, and the third is a 1700 Series unit. Each model is equipped with four shafted backstands and can handle 60 in. o.d. in rolls at width's of 67 in. One of the 1400 Models is set-up to precision sheet 8-1/2 by 11 in. sheets, for "on demand" digital printers. "We are finding a growing number of companies want that capability, so that's a growing part of what we do," says Bob Snyder, plant engineer for RF Converting.

As for the slitting/rewinding portion of RF Converting, most of their customers product is converted for the flexographic, digital, wide-format (ink jet), industrial and food paper markets. "Our slitting/rewinding department converts parent mill rolls into jumbo size rolls, narrow rolls and small diameter rolls for paper mills, paper merchants, film manufacturers, pressure sensitive manufacturers, etc. We utilize our high-speed Jagenberg drum-winding equipment to do this at speeds up to 4,000 linear fpm as well as our duplex slitting equipment by Arrow (no longer in business) and Dusenbery," says David.

The duplex slitter/rewinders are capable of winding 56.5-in. rolls and drum winding capability at 92 in. widths. For the digital roll market, RF uses its Goebel Rapid D automatic turret winder. Also on the line, it runs a salvage winder/roll doctor system by Stanford Products, as well as a newly installed Polar trimmer to compliment the sheeting departments capabilities. A full scrap-recycling system is hooked up to every machine in the plant.

"Paper manufacturers and converters need to justify their investments more than ever. Using RF Converting's warehousing and converting programs, our customers no longer need to invest in capital equipment--potentially reducing fixed operating costs. In today's economy, this is a very important issue and can become a competitive advantage for the customers we serve," says David.

Added value to come
Recently installed, RF Converting added a Model 3051-PL Schneider ream stacker with a size capability of 43x60-in. This previously owned equipment was purchased from Absolute Printing Equipment, Indianapolis. This automated unit handles small and large sheets of various materials, automatically stacking skids of guillotine trimmed sheets.

"This provides a hands-free way of stacking the skid, providing a "perfect" stack, free of ream "lift" lines, which can plague the printer when feeding their presses," says David. This eliminates the manual labor involved with the trimming process and speeds up the entire sheeting operation.

The stacker contributes to the film/synthetic paper RF Converting converts for major film manufacturers. Most film products require guillotine trimming to remove "edge welding" that occurs when multiple rolls of film are sheeted at once. "Film converting represents a fast-growing part of the sheeting operation of RF Converting, and this machine will contribute greatly to the overall finished quality and efficiency to the operation," says David.

In Winter 2002, Russell-Field will take possession of an Elite Cameron Model 648 120-in.-wide duplex slitter/rewinder. With a 72-in. o.d. unwind and 50-in. o.d. rewind will be capable of running at 3,000 fpm. It will be equipped with an automated carriage-roll discharge system and automated core/shaft removal, which eliminates manual operator intervention.

Material capabilities for the Model 648 include, but are not limited to pressure-sensitive, non-wovens, coated and uncoated paper, paperboard (SBS), specialty laminates, films, synthetic papers, foils, and metallized paper. By adding this slitter/rewinder, RF Converting expands capacity to the slitting/rewinding department.

The world of paper
In the late '70s Russell-Field was the first company to offer a comprehensive stocking program of non-adhesive materials for flexographic tag, label and business-form printers; the RF Xpress Roll Program. From there, they moved into the narrow web market, and business grew further.

The narrow web side of Russell-Field sells to the flexo industry. "We began to understand certain niches in the specialty papers market," explains Laura Field, president of Russell-Field Paper Co.

One of the niche label markets Russell-Field targeted was thermal transfer. "We understood the product requirements pretty well. So, we learned to understand some pretty interesting technical ways to sell paper," says Laura.

With one of their paper suppliers understanding thermal transfer, Russell-Field became the North American distributor for a particular product line developed for Xeikon digital presses. "They [the distributor] looked at a couple different companies in the U.S. too, but they chose our company because of our technical ability to sell papers as well as our converting expertise," says Laura.

Then, while selling to the Xeikon market, Russell-Field began to market some of its current products for the Indigo market. "We worked closely with our vendors to develop brand new product lines for the Indigo market - to become the first North American company to supply NON-saphire treated products scripted for the Indigo press," says Laura.

Along with Indigo and Xeikon, Russell-Field supplies Sterling Digital's coated paper for digital print, and Sundance Digital's uncoated paper, also for digital print. "We pride ourselves on the fact that we carry only quality papers that have been RIT scripted," says Maryellen O'Keefe-Smith, marketing manager for Russell-Field Paper Co.

It's newest partnership with East-West Group, LLC brings in a line of specialty laminated products for the graphics arts community - specialty laminated foil, film and holographic substrates in roll or sheet form.

From fancy store boxes...
So what brought on the contract converting side of Russell-Field? Paper. If it wasn't for the paper business being created in 1937 by Vic Russell and LaVerne Field, RF Converting might not be around today.

Both founders had worked for a Chicago paper company before starting their own venture. Once Russell-Field Paper Co. was up and running, it specialized in decorative wrapping papers used to cover fancy department store boxes.

Ten years later, after the death of both founders, the business was strictly run by Verne's wife, Ruth, who kept the Russell name on the masthead. In 1958, John Field, Verne's son, returned as a college graduate after two years in the Army to join his mother in the business.

With a decline in Russell-Field's box-wrap business, it needed to retain a presence in the packaging industry. Moving onto bigger and better things, the business evolved to wider specs of the paper industry, launched the RF Xpress Roll Program in the late '70s and has since ventured into a range of narrow-web market niches.

More information from:
Körber Paperlink North America, 860/687-9911, fax: 860/687-9922, www.kplna.kpl.net
Jagenberg, Inc., 860/741-2501, fax: 860/741-2508.
John Dusenbery Co. Inc., 973/366-7500, fax: 973/366-7453, www.dusenbery.com
Goebel/Matik North America, 860/232-2323, fax: 860/233-0162, www. matik.com
Stanford Products LLC, 630/739-9255, fax: 630/739-9253.
Polar, a div. of Heidelberg, 800/437-7388, fax: 770/419-6608, www. heidelberg.com
Absolute Printing Equipment, 317/862-9096, fax: 317/862-9097, www.absoluteprintequipment.com
Elite Cameron, Inc., 732/627-0400, fax: 732/356-0111, www.elitecameron.com
Xeikon America, Inc., 630/616-5610, fax: 630/616- 9535.
Indigo America, Inc., 781/937-8800, fax: 781/937-8810, www.indigonet.com