Contract slitter serves as an extension of its customers' operations

If it weren't for freight charges and having to buy protective packaging for shipment, there would be little difference between the adhesive film slit onsite at Bemis Assoc. Inc., Shirley, Mass., and the volume of slitting it outsources to nearby contract converter Pacon Corporation, Natick, Mass.

By Stephanie Duschene, Senior Editor -- Converting Magazine, 9/1/1997

If it weren't for freight charges and having to buy protective packaging for shipment, there would be little difference between the adhesive film slit onsite at Bemis Assoc. Inc., Shirley, Mass., and the volume of slitting it outsources to nearby contract converter Pacon Corporation, Natick, Mass. That's exactly how Bemis wants it, says Tom DeMerle, the company's buyer in charge of outsourcing.

Throughout their three-year business relationship, Pacon has consistently produced masterfully slit rolls of Bemis' often difficult-to-run specialty adhesive films, in turnarounds of two weeks or less. When difficulties arise ‚ mostly due to the tacky nature of Bemis' 100 percent solids adhesive films ‚ Pacon is always willing and able to quickly problem-solve, says DeMerle.

"We consider Pacon to be very much an extension of our own slitting department," says DeMerle. "Their level of support, in all ways, has been exemplary."

Bemis manufacturers thermoplastic adhesive films and coatings for a number of markets, primarily apparel, woodworking and automotive. Its film is used, for instance, to bond decorative PVC to the exterior of a kitchen cabinet door as an alternative to solvent-based adhesives. It is used in car set construction to bond the fabric of a seat cushion to the foam padding underneath. Also, it is increasingly used in apparel construction such as seam tapes and to attach belt loops to pants, eliminating the need for stitching.

"The belt loop application is a relatively new innovation that has grown more popular because it takes a lot of the labor out of the process," says DeMerle.

Bemis has a full range of in-house converting capabilities including extrusion, coating, laminating, slitting and calendering. However, the business has grown substantially in recent years, says DeMerle, leading the company to outsource some of its slitting to contract converters.

"Pacon's sales people called on me a few years ago right when we were looking for someone to handle an additional portion of our overflow," says DeMerle. "They had the capabilities to help us right off the bat and they were very willing to accommodate our needs."

To meet the need of its customers, Pacon consistently maintains open communication between its manufacturing and customer service personnel. The two groups work in concert to coordinate and review scheduling issues to meet the delivery requirements of their customers.

Pacon also strives to be "strategic partners" to both its customers and suppliers. They offer warehousing of master rolls and will slit to specific order requirements so that their customers can make intelligent decisions about material needed for current production, and limit inventory in widths that might have no future use.

Pacon's slitting capabilities run the gamut from shear, razor and score methods. They can slit virtually any substrate to as wide as 65 in. and as narrow as 1/32 in. They offer duplex and simplex center winding and duplex and simplex center-surface winding.

Edge guides that read print lines are used to ensure proper registration. Tension can be isolated in multiple zones from unwind to rewind to help ensure a uniform finished roll.

Pacon also has spooling (traverse winding) capabilities that enables customers to process narrow-width product in a format that reduces downtime and makes the product safe during shipping and handling. For example, a 16-in.-wide by 16-in.-dia. spool of 1/4-in.-wide, 2-mil-adhesive-coated PET film can hold as much as 400,000 ft of material for continuous conversion.

Proven performance builds trust

If you need to outsource, it's imperative that you are able to trust the contract converter, says DeMerle. Pacon has proven to be a reliable, very conscientious contract converter over the years, he says. So much so that Bemis allows Pacon to make some independent production decisions regarding their rolls.

"Our materials might come to Pacon and not be 100 percent usable. Sometimes the rolls have nicks or cuts and they need to be trimmed," says DeMerle. "We rely on Pacon's judgment to determine how much needs to be taken off to make it a nice clean, usable roll for us. We trust that Pacon has our best interest in mind."

Pacon has also proven to be very flexible and innovative in its approach to slitting the myriad new products that Bemis has introduced over the years. "Pacon has been capable of slitting everything we've put in front of them," says DeMerle. "In some cases, they've had to modify their equipment to meet a unique requirement that our material poses. And they do it willingly."

More information from:

Pacon Corporation, 800/370-2003.