Portland, OR-based Craftsman Label, with its fleet of flexo, thermal and digital press systems, has boosted print quality and cut costs with the help of MacDermid and All Printing Resources (APR). The company’s label and flexible packaging applications serve a wide range of end uses, including food, beverage, pharmaceutical, personal care and industrials.

At the most recent Labelexpo Americas, Darren McClintock scheduled a meeting with APR to talk about the firm’s MacDermid LUX ITP plate technology and associated service offerings. “We have been an APR customer for about a year and a half and when their local technical sales representative started talking about how they could help us with our plate issues, I was interested in hearing what she had to say,” says McClintock. “After a few months of trials and testing, we realized that the MacDermid plates could deliver in every single way our existing plate supplier was delivering, in addition to saving us a substantial amount of money.”

The MacDermid plate technology has solved ink transfer issues and the lack of service coming from the company’s previous plate supplier. McClintock was looking at a way to potentially streamline his company’s consumables inventory practices. He states, “Our approach to tracking inventory was the same as just about every other label printer out there. It involved me relying on other people in the company to let me know what we were low on a specific product. Periodically we would run out of an item and then have to do next day or second day air delivery and pay the extra fees.”

Craftsman claims the switch to MacDermid plates two months ago was seamless, and McClintock projects his company will save more than $80,000 over the course of a year as a result. He adds, “I wanted the switch to be seamless and so far it has been, and I can tell you that I am in love with these new plates.”

In addition to switching to the MacDermid LUX ITP plates, Craftsman Label also brought in APR’s SupplySentry RFID inventory management system. APR’s roots in RFID-managed inventory dates back to 2004, and the company remains committed to RFID software development expertise and marketplace testing. APR’s SupplySentry RFID-enabled Flexo Supply continuously monitors the consumables items Craftsman Label uses on a daily basis including doctor blades, wipes, tapes and the MacDermid plate material.

McClintock comments, “The SupplySentry works beautifully for us. I look at it every day and have direct access to my precise inventory levels for some of our most important consumables. We have 23 items that we track through the system currently, and this guarantees we will never run out of a product or have to ship anything express air.”