‘Our mission has always been benchmarking our products against international counterparts so that corrugated and folding carton converters have access to world-class tooling and in turn support local manufacturing rather than importing the dies and affiliated tooling,’ explains MD Craig Beswick.
Laserpac’s philosophy, therefore, encompasses sustained investment in the business via new machinery, upgrades to design software, machine tooling and key assets to ensure that it can continue developing new products, retain high levels of uptime on equipment and manage future obsolescence.
‘Our leading global partners are constantly developing products and technologies to cater for ever-changing market trends. Naturally, we keep abreast of these developments and implement those we consider beneficial to our local customers,’ Craig remarks. ‘Additionally, our partners offer excellent technical and process advice when it comes to using their products, which adds value and helps ensure our customers improve output and get the most out of their die cutters even on complicated layouts.’
Laserpac also takes its environmental impact seriously and is currently busy with a programme to minimise its footprint by upgrading its Cape Town and Johannesburg facilities with energy from solar and water harvesting systems.
‘Without going into detail, our Cape Town team has implemented a fantastic idea to reduce wastage and our impact on the environment. Members of this team then travelled to Johannesburg to train their colleagues to roll it out at the Gauteng facility,’ Craig states.
Lightweighting blanking tools
He maintains that Laserpac has been at the forefront of blanking tool development and manufacture in South Africa since the early 1990s by continually investing in R&D projects to expand its existing product offering.
The main aim of the company’s latest project – developing lightweight yet durable blanking tools – is to create a few possibilities to choose from because no two jobs or machines are the same. Without standardised solutions available, Laserpac has to use different methods and materials according to each customer’s die-cutting equipment, carton design, layout and substrate.
He points out that this lack of hard and fast rules for tooling design and manufacture means that the challenge is identifying each job’s nuances and finding the best option based on the merits of that job. ‘Fortunately, our experienced team has the die-cutting process experience to ensure that we can offer customers the best option according to their precise needs,’ Craig asserts. ‘While we try not to let cost influence the decision-making process, in some cases we can offer customers different price options according to budget, job run length and/or risk of a short-term design or layout change.’
Additionally, Laserpac has experienced excellent growth in other markets across the continent and beyond, which means that any tooling weight reduction represents a saving on shipping costs and makes the company more competitive.
Ed’s note: Laserpac also offers customers full machine process support. In the case of Bobst autoplatens, it can draw on the expertise of Beswick Machinery’s technical teams to ensure that joint customers get the most from their tooling and die-cutting machinery.
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