New slitter fits aggressive philosophy
Roll Bond's purchase of an affordable, high-precision slitter lets its president offer prices to "shake up the industry."
By Managing Editor Melissa Larson -- Converting Magazine, 4/1/2001
Ramzy Bathish is on a mission. Roll Bond Converting, his recently-launched Farmers Branch, Tex. company has chosen a small, specialized niche in the converted paper industry, and he intends to serve those customers with the highest quality-and prices that confound his competitors. The converter's mission statement emphasizes that customers will find its reprographic and data-processing media to be on a par with higher-priced name-brand products, and backs that claim up with an invitation to tour the plant-claiming its operation is similar to "large multinational producers, though on a smaller scale."
Experienced personnel and a scrappy competitive spirit make Roll Bond a bit more than your average startup converter. "Each member of our team has over 10 years experience servicing the wide-format reprographic and data-processing markets," he says. "The ability to meet the high production expectations we've established will allow us to offer high-quality products, yet still appeal to the value-conscious consumer."
"I guarantee you my competition will be reading this interview, because they want to know how we do it," he says. "Our niche is wide-format reprographic media for engineering copiers and ink-jet plotters. We offer the highest quality-a precise cut, tight wind and no scratches on the media surfaces. Yet we are able to offer a very competitive price. Our new slitter is a major component driving our favorable pricing structure."
The challenge in adding a fourth slitter/rewinder was to find an economical machine, able to handle high output, that wouldn't sacrifice quality. "We are very pleased to have found that machine in the Jennerjahn JLS-72 slitter/rewinder," says Bathish.
Hot machine
For Jennerjahn, the Roll Bond application represents the latest in a series of JLS-72 successes. Since delivering the first of them in 1998, the builder has installed more than a dozen, and, according to sales manager Chris Jennerjahn, "We have never lost a sale to our competitors once a prospective customer has seen a machine demo on the JLS-72 slitter/rewinder."
"Low quality in this business can mean a loose wind with interleaved edges, and poor cutting in general," says Bathish. "With the JLS, we're able to offer a good, precise cut, plus efficient acceleration and deceleration. We've experienced a 60% increase in efficiency since we started up the new machine in October of 2000, and since we're in such a heavy growth mode, we're already wired for a second machine as soon as we're using enough capacity from the first one."
The Jennerjahn system was installed with a shaftless unwind unit, automatic tape-to-core and core insertion features, shaftless rewind, and a side log eject conveyor for packaging the rolls.
Upgraded mercury-vapor and fluorescent lighting installed by Roll Bond lets operators make sure of the precise quality Bathish expects from the slitter.
Approximately 80 percent of Roll Bond's output is 15-26# bond paper, with the remaining 20 percent comprising vellum, kraft paper and Mylar reverse-image film that is used in signage and other graphic-arts applications.
Still, it's the data-processing and reprographic markets where Bathish most hopes to make his mark. "We could have retrofitted an older machine, but we chose to go with a new system," he says. "This market needs a shakeup and I refuse to do things the same old way. I couldn't be more pleased with both the equipment and the service Jennerjahn has provided. This machine is going to help us fulfill a promise to our customers: quality, reliability, effectiveness and affordability."
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