Aiming to transition 50% of its business to packaging within five years, SunDance, located in Orlando, FL, USA, has purchased a new Diana Go 85 high-speed folder-gluer from Heidelberg. The Diana Go complements a new Easymatrix diecutter the company installed earlier this year and will help SunDance lower costs, lessen spoilage, and achieve better lead times for its customers. 

SunDance, which was recently profiled in L&NW, has emphasized its growing labels and package printing business.

Since installing the Easymatrix in January, SunDance, an award-winning Florida printer, has been able to acquire new packaging clientele thanks to the diecutter’s advanced capabilities and high speeds. “We were able to go after clients we couldn’t efficiently service before,” states JohnHenry Ruggieri, managing partner/president of SunDance.

The company, however, quickly started seeing a bottleneck downstream due to its 20-year-old folder-gluer’s limitations and quality issues. Running up to 300 m/m, the Diana Go will quadruple the speed of SunDance’s current folder-gluer and give the company the ability to produce 98% of its jobs in-house. While SunDance will retain its current folder-gluer for specialty jobs, the Diana Go’s compact footprint allows it to still fit easily within the company’s production environment.

Additionally, the Diana Go’s efficient make-ready gives SunDance greater flexibility to easily change over between a variety of different packaging types, including small to large straight line and lock bottom cartons and mailing envelopes. SunDance also decided to purchase the small carton attachment, which can fold cartons, like lipstick boxes, as small as 1.77 × 2.17″.

“We have a lot of business opportunities for small cartons, which we had to pass on before,” says Ruggieri. “The small carton attachment for the Diana Go is one of the most important features of the machine and was the biggest selling point for us.”

SunDance, who produces several cartons for the nutraceutical market, also needed a machine with excellent quality control. Opting to install the Diana Go with inline Inspection and Ejection System, SunDance can trust that the Diana Go will detect any flaws in the cartons on the fly and automatically eject them from the rest of the job. “Our clients get fined by their vendors if there are any mistakes, so these systems are vital to our production,” says Ruggieri.

SunDance believes that the machine’s advanced technology, which is designed to make operators’ jobs less physically demanding, will also help the company attract new operators in the future. According to Ruggieri, “The training will be much easier for us. Our older folder-gluer is very much an art whereas the Diana Go is more of a science.”

Looking forward, SunDance is anticipating further investments in the packaging side of its business. “Having one vendor accountability is great for us. If I run into an issue, I only need to make one call,” says Ruggieri. “We really value our relationship. Heidelberg’s service and reputation is impeccable, and everything they do is outstanding.”