Arvco Container Corp. (CONT’D FROM PAGE 24)
1994 with the retirement of its older 78-inch and 87-inch corrugating capacity and the acquisition and installation of its 98-inch Agnati/Fosber corrugator. “I say, ‘We’re going all-in, and we’re going to put in a new corrugator.’ It was the best thing we could have ever done.” Arvco’s corrugator capacity serves a broad waterfront, with flute profiles A, B, C, E, F, and K in single-face and single-, double-, and triple-wall board. As Greg explains it, Arvco’s business mix at the time was heavyweight- based, with triple-wall applications and heavier containerboard grades. But its broadening reach into the food and bever- age business—Arvco manufactures 265 food packaging items and holds 10 food-related patents—required a ma- chine with flexibility in emerging microflutes like E and F. “We were already in the food business, and so I needed a corrugator that could make triple-wall as well as light-
er-weight microflutes,” he says. “The Europeans had a lot of experience with microflutes, so it’s one of the reasons I was steering toward Agnati.” Greg Arvanigian, left, with Maintenance Manager Chad Haw- kins at Arvco's Kalamazoo facility.
The company’s converting and finishing capabilities have mirrored the flexibility and diversity of the 98-inch corrugator. Arvco’s Ka- lamazoo plant maintains an impressive large- box and triple-wall capacity in its jumbo Flex- oline 86-inch by 212-inch 2-color flexo folder gluer, and its J&L 150-inch specialty folder gluer. The company also maintains a stable of equipment suitable to the industrial box mar- ket, with its Langston Saturn III 3-color mini flexo and its Post 84-inch specialty folder glu- er. In between is a complement of workhorse machines: Ward and Hycorr (Kolbus) rotary die cutters as well as enhanced-graphics rotary die cutters in Arvco’s two Apstar 66-inch by 110-inch 4-color and its Hycorr 66-inch by 85- inch 4-color. In Cadillac, a similar machine footprint can be seen in its Langston 50-inch 2-color flexo folder gluer, Ward 66-inch by 85-inch two-col- or die cutter, and Hycorr 66-inch by 85-inch 3-color rotary die cutters. Rounding out the equipment mix are a Göpfert MAXI boxmak- er, a Bahmüller stitcher, and a DPI three-color digital printer. About Arvco’s broad business mix, Greg says, “We want to sell the stuff that nobody else wants to sell. If you were to look at our mix, take the bell curve of the corrugated in- dustry where ultra-lightweight is on one end and super heavy triple-wall is on the other end. Invert that bell curve, and you have an Arvco. “When it comes to doing something with a corrugated box,” he adds, “we do more stuff on-site than anybody else in the world. I don’t
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December 5, 2022
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