McLean Packaging, a comprehensive provider of rigid set boxes, folding cartons, corrugated displays and thermoformed packaging solutions, recently installed a Speedmaster XL 106-10+LYYL from HEIDELBERG at its Moorestown, NJ folding carton manufacturing facility. The new XL 106, equipped with UV, Prinect Inpress Control 3, and FoilStar, is the second Speedmaster the company has installed in less than three years.

Installed in 2020 prior to the onset of COVID-19 in North America, McLean’s first XL 106 provided immense flexibility for customers searching for quick packaging solutions during the pandemic. “We were able to say ‘yes’ more often,” said Jeff Besnick, Vice President of Operations for McLean. “Thanks to the XL 106, our dependability and versatility gave us a bump in business – particularly in folding carton.” Its first HEIDELBERG press in nearly 50 years, McLean’s nine-color XL 106 has improved the productivity of the company’s Moorestown plant by nearly 20% since installation. Thanks to its new efficiencies, the company has increased its overall capacity – enabling it to better serve both existing and new customers. McLean credits this boost to the machine’s ability to consistently run and quickly changeover jobs regardless of substrate in addition to its near 100% uptime. According to McLean’s CEO Joe Fenkel, “From 60# text to 28 pt. board and even foils, it can run anything we want and run it better than any machine we’ve ever had.”

McLean has also been impressed with the XL 106’s incredibly short makereadies when switching from eight-color jobs with many spot colors to standard four-color jobs. Thanks to Prinect Inpress Control, the industry’s leading inline spectrophotometer that measures, controls, and registers color on the fly at any speed, sheets can get up to color in as little as 60 sheets. “I had no prior experience with Inpress Control,” said the Operations Manager for McLean, “but after seeing the results, we wouldn’t even consider looking at another press without it.” In all, the advanced technology of the
XL 106 has contributed to increased throughput, improved quality, and better consistency across each of McLean’s press runs.

Due to the success of its first XL 106, McLean Packaging decided to replace a 2015 press of competitive technology with a new Speedmaster XL 106-10+LYYL equipped with both Prinect Inpress Control 3 and FoilStar. Installation of the 14-unit machine began in January at the company’s Moorestown production facility. McLean chose the 10-color configuration based on increasing demands from its customers for additional spot colors. According to Besnick, “Our sales group continuously comes in with requests for more and more brand colors. Each time we’ve purchased a press, we’ve decided to add an additional unit to better serve our customers.” Additionally, with FoilStar, McLean can not only add inline special effects on press but will also improve productivity by eliminating some of its offline foiling processes. Fenkel says, “the efficiency and reliability of FoilStar on our current press is such that we’re moving more and more inline. We expect to do so more with our new machine as well.”

The company also anticipates significant productivity increases thanks to the XL 106’s advanced technology and the flexibility of having two Speedmasters on the production floor. “We wanted the consistency of having the same manufacturer on production floor for scheduling and repeatability,” said Besnick. “When we need to shift the production schedule, we don’t have to remake plates, change consumables, or recalibrate color.”

The press includes innovative features like autonomous Push-to-Stop technology, AutoPlate Pro, and a completely new operating philosophy, the Heidelberg User Experience, which together with the patented Intellistart 3 and other assistance systems, ensure short makeready times and the best possible support for press operators. Already familiar with some of these technologies from its current XL 106, McLean’s Business Development Manager said, “Since installation, our operators have gravitated towards the XL 106 because of its ease of use. They look forward to having two on the pressroom floor.”

To ensure its press is always running at peak performance, McLean Packaging utilizes HEIDELBERG’s Performance Advisor Technology (PAT). Available in the HEIDELBERG Assistant portal, PAT continuously analyzes print shop and machine data, and if necessary, automatically recommends solutions via artificial intelligence. “I log in and look for suggestions for any performance issues that HEIDELBERG is autonomously identifying for us. It’s convenient these are available whenever we w ant to access them,” said McLean’s Business Development Manager. While impressed with the technology HEIDELBERG has to offer, Besnick also said that McLean has “come to really appreciate the dependability, level of service, and consistency that we get with HEIDELBERG.”

McLean Packaging’s Management Team with the new Speedmaster XL 106

Established in 1961, McLean Packaging is a turnkey provider of packaging solutions for the beauty, personal care, confectionary and other sectors. Comprised of over 200 employees across three facilities totaling nearly 500,000 square feet, the company specializes in rigid set boxes, folding cartons, corrugated displays and thermoformed solutions. Unlike many packaging solutions suppliers, McLean’s continued investment in gluing, printing and other ancillary infrastructure allows it to create packages entirely within its own organization – a differentiator that yields efficiency, consistency and streamlined customer collaboration. McLean Packaging is headquartered in Moorestown, NJ, with additional production facilities in Pennsauken, NJ and Nazareth, PA