The labels and packaging industry is fast-growing – and even faster evolving. Century Printing & Packaging recently made history by investing in the first Durst 1200 dpi KJet hybrid in North America, and in doing so established its place in today’s industry.

Century Printing & Packaging (recently profiled in L&NW) located in South Carolina, has been a true partner to its clients for nearly three decades. Owners and brothers, Ben and Neil Waldrop, understand the importance of partnership and deliver exceptional products primarily for food, beverage, and chemical labels. To accomplish this, they needed exceptional technology with high speed that would be capable of matching flexo type speed. They also wanted to break into new markets and needed a printer that would help them.

Neil states, “Durst was very supportive in all of our needs, and the options of what we can use the KJet for truly expands our capabilities. It was a very strong decision for us.”

Speed and repeatability

The KJet hybrid label printer combines cylinder-based dual-servo flexo technology from Omet, with the robustness and reliability of a Durst 1200 dpi RSCi digital printing engine, bringing power and automation to label and packaging applications.

“The best part of the KJet is the speed and repeatability,” continues Neil. “The changeover is fast and exact every time. The automatic loadings for the die station is very nice. The registration on it is just phenomenal. It’s literally just put it in, load it up and go. We’re not fighting color, we’re not chasing our tail on anything. It just it does what it says it’s supposed to.”

“We worked very closely with Ben and Neil in the months leading up to Labelexpo, ensuring the KJet would be a perfect fit for them,” comments Steve Lynn, executive director, Durst North America. “We knew it would check every box they had and take their company into the future they were envisioning. After extensive analysis of available options in the market, we concluded a deal for the KJet at Labelexpo. Six months later, it is more than they expected it would be. This has been a thrilling journey, and we look forward to watching the KJet continue to grow CP&P.”

There have been some unexpected surprises with the KJet, too. Ben Waldrop remarks, “I spend a lot of time on pricing models, proposals, and quotes, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at the ink cost. We’ve been able to reduce prices for quotes for competitive markets based on that cost and so that’s been a great surprise.”

Workflow and Analytics

The KJet comes equipped with Durst Workflow and Analytics, which has been beneficial for the brothers. Neil elaborates, “The feedback we get, the data that is collected within the press, is impressive and gives us a lot of information. If something didn’t work out like we wanted it to or expected it to, we can dig into it. On the flip side, if it ran better, we could find out why and replicate it. We’re constantly looking at data, getting feedback, and figuring out how we can improve our systems. Having accurate, numerical, and consistent data is very useful.”

“Durst has really made a commitment to us, for this to work for us, from a production, cost, data, and support standpoint, making sure that it’s integrated in our IT systems and our prepress systems. There has been a top-down focus from the Durst team to make this work, and it’s been a success,” concludes Ben. “The KJet has paid off. We have hired two more salespeople in the last month, and we are anticipating long term growth.”