Sandy Hook, CT-based cartonmaker Curtis Packaging wrapped up quite a sparkling year in 2006. Along with celebrating its 160th business anniversary, the $40-million custom packaging designer/printer/manufacturer added several innovative services and completed a major renovation. But the brightest example may be its new process that makes cartons shine.

The converter provides complete packaging and printing services, including graphic and structural design, UV printing, hot-stamping, diemaking, UV and aqueous coating and complete finishing. Curtis serves the consumer packaged goods, cosmetics, HBA, liquor, pharmaceutical and software industries.

To make silver metallic effects more affordable and accessible, the 175-employee company introduced—after six months of development—a proprietary flexo/offset printing process that can substitute for foil-laminated board. Called CurtCHROME and CurtCHROMEplus, the effect is applied on Curtis's 10-station, 51-in. KBA (www.kba-usa.com) Rapida 130 press (installed in mid-2004) and is designed with a Harris & Bruno interstation, dispersion coater and a dryer before its eight offset units. The unusual configuration—reportedly the first of its kind in the offset world—allows printing over the flexo inline for various special effects. Press crews can lay down and dry a heavy silver metallic coating (full coverage) to the sheet as soon as it enters the press, then print up to eight colors and finish with a second coater/dryer on top of the reflective base—all in a single pass.

The result: packaging with the brilliance of metallic foil or hot stamping but requiring no off-press processing. “This unique process is ideal for packaging professionals who…don't have the budget for foil board or hot stamping,” says Donald Droppo, Sr., chairman of Curtis Packaging. “CurtCHROME enables them to incorporate metallic effects at a nominal up-charge.”

The Harris & Bruno LithoCoat (Chamber/Anilox) System (www.harris-bruno.com) comes with a chiller and heater to handle the varying viscosities of aqueous, UV and other specialty coatings. The technology employs a single, laser-engraved metering (anilox) roll in conjunction with a chambered doctor-blade system to apply a uniform and consistent ink/coating/varnish thickness. Hydraulic, chamber-loading cylinders automatically compensate for blade wear.

The LithoCoat Circulator pumps the coating into the chamber, which feeds the coating to the cells of the anilox, which in turn transfers the coating to the blanket/plate cylinder. Harris & Bruno notes that each system is custom-engineered for press type.

For variety, Curtis says it can achieve brilliant golds, coppers and bronzes by applying a transparent ink over the initial silver dispersion coating to tint it to the desired color. And for extra luster, packaging designers can choose CurtCHROMEplus for an added dimension of luminance.

In another plus for designers, Curtis also lowered the cost of micro-embossed effects by rolling out CurtCRYSTAL, another proprietary printing process that eliminates the need for off-press processing. With this technique, the second coating applied interacts with the first coating and reticulates, creating a crystal-like effect. The level of the raised effect depends on how fine (or coarse) the anilox is—that is, the grain and depth of the cells.

In the major renovation to its 165,000-sq-ft facility, Curtis added several new finishing systems. The latest investment is led by a CG Machinery SBL-1300SEF foil stamper (www.cgmachinery.com) that can apply foil effects to sheets as large at 51 × 37-in. at up to 6,000 impressions/hr. The resulting cost efficiency is making more packaging products candidates for hot-foil stamping.

Next up are two new Omega folder/gluers. Designed for high-speed package production, the Omega 110 manufactures all styles, including four- and six-corner cartons. The mid-range Omega 80 also can produce at very high speeds. Both are fully computerized to speed make-ready and production while ensuring high quality.

Curtis's die-cut windowing capabilities have grown stronger, as well. A new 37-in. Kohmann 950 (www.window-patcher.com) window-patcher runs two streams, two-up, for improved cost efficiency and responsiveness.

“Finishing is where the printed sheet becomes a package,” says John Giusto, Curtis manufacturing vice president. “It's also where you can add extra shelf appeal to the project with techniques like foiling and windowing. That's why we continually update our finishing workflow.”

A final element of the facility upgrade is Curtis's new Quality Assurance Lab in the heart of the company's production stream. Equipped with the latest test equipment and digitally driven measuring devices, the QA lab lets Curtis Packaging monitor quality continually through visual inspection, SPC and internal auditing.

“The more we advance our technology, the more we can do for our customers,” says Don Droppo, Jr., Curtis marketing vice president. “That's why we're relentless in continually improving our capabilities.”

Curtis believes in doing something good for the environment, too. In mid-2006, it became Forest Stewardship Council-certified and began using 100-percent renewable energy. The company signed an agreement with Community Energy, Inc. (www.newwindenergy.com), to purchase pollution-free, renewable energy (primarily wind power) equal to 100 percent of its energy usage. These sustainability efforts were detailed in a Fortune magazine article last spring.

The printer estimates that it will buy more than 4.5 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy annually over the next three years. Curtis reports that the potential environmental benefit equals off-setting more than 7 million lbs of carbon-dioxide emissions per year—akin to planting over 480,000 trees or not driving a car 6.2 million miles annually.