PFFC - April 2008 - (Page 34)

POUCH MAKING Certifiably Clean A high-speed Mamata pouchmaker gives Fisher Container an edge in the very demanding clean room market environment it serves. By Edward Boyle, Contributing Editor, and Yolanda Simonsis, Editor/Assoc. Publisher W hatever you do, don’t send a fruit basket. That’s exactly what one ill-fated bag converter did 25 years ago to apologize when it failed to deliver the quality garment bags required by ARAMARK, an international supplier to the food, hospitality, facility management, and work apparel industries. It didn’t go over well. So when Michael Fisher, then a salesman for Fisher Container Corp., walked into that company’s reception area a few days later looking to win the business, the ARAMARK executive waved at the now infamous parting gift. He pointedly demanded, “Don’t send me fruit baskets. Send me good bags.” Fisher, now president of the company, fondly recalls that meeting in a story he never tires of telling, not only because he landed the account, but because it marked the converter’s entry into the clean room bag market. Within weeks, the company had the equipment and procedures in place that ultimately would deliver miluConverter Infot uFisher Container Corp. | 1111 Busch Pkwy., Buffalo Grove, IL 60089 | 800-837-2247 |www. fishercontainer.com Class 10 clean room. Fisher says that only two or three other converters have Fisher Container’s clean room capabilities, but no one has their printing capabilities. The Mamata, which can produce side weld Tyvek pouches, peelable structures, and other specialty bags, operates at 250 strokes/min and can convert polypropylene/low-density (LD) and linear LD polyethylene (PE)/high density PE materials from 10–100 microns. Fisher says production speed was a priority when choosing the Mamata because “it had to run faster than what my competitors have, because Meeting Stringent Requirements cost is a factor. It fit all our needs and reThe timing of Fisher Container’s entry into the clean room bag market couldn’t quirements and seemed like a sound piece of equipment. It gave us peace of mind and have been better. Demand was on the comfort, so we decided to pull the trigger rise. The industry was so young at the and buy it, and it’s worked out well for us.” time that it was difficult to find reliBecause it operates in the company’s able sources of product that could come clean room, Fisher says his employthrough 100% of the time. ees reviewed every component of the Even today, the purity requirements Mamata—from belts and gears to the way for clean room bags remain so stringent the machine was lubricated—to guarantee that only a handful of companies produce them, says Fisher. “If I make a bad bag or a it would operate contaminant-free. Notes couple of bad bags [for a typical customer], Fisher, “It’s an extremely lengthy list that I get those boxes back,” explains Fisher. “If can either make or break a deal. And we found that we were able to modify the I make three bags that are contaminated, and they’re sent to Singapore, I’d get every- machine to meet our needs.” Take, for example, its ability to thing back—all 150,000 of them. So qualhandle such hard-to-convert materials as ity is of the utmost concern.” Fisher Packaging’s Precision Clean Div. Cryovac, polyvinyl chloride, and shrink manufactures bags and pouches in an ISO films. “Not everybody can do that,” notes lions of clean room bags annually to ARAMARK and hundreds of other customers in more than 50 countries. “It was a wonderful example of a supplier and a customer working really closely to develop a high quality product that fit their needs,” recalls Fisher. “I said to them, ‘You teach me clean room protocol, and I’ll develop a product that is lower in particulate, that you can sterilize, and I’ll also develop a process in which we can be held accountable. We’ll set levels.’” WWW.PFFC-ONLINE.COM 34 | APRIL 2008 http://www.fishercontainer.com http://www.fishercontainer.com http://WWW.PFFC-ONLINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of PFFC - April 2008

PFFC - April 2008 Table of Contents First Glance Calendar of Events From the Editor Web Lines Process Management News Clips Narrow Web & Label Reporter Narrow Web & Label What’s New Products Carton & Box Reporter Carton & Box What’s New Products Green Converting Pouchmaking Show Preview Flexible Packaging Gravure Printing What's New Products Services Directory Classifieds Marketplace Equipment Buyers & Sellers Advertisers Index Experience Speaks

PFFC - April 2008

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