Kurz Transfer Products LP (Booth N5533) is increasing its presence in North America beyond foil systems, bringing production of auxiliary equipment and tooling to the United States to match its reach in Europe.
``Historically, Kurz was synonymous with plastic foils,'' said product manager Chip Bailey in a June 25 interview at NPE 2003. ``We lost focus of being the full force, full service supplier.''
Kurz launched production of auxiliary machines with a St. Louis manufacturer earlier this year. Tooling equipment is being made in Charlotte, N.C. The company already has three U.S. foil production operations.
Bringing everything under its corporate umbrella in North America gives the firm greater control and also allows it to provide better response to customers, he said.
``We will now be able to handle the complete plastics decorating project from design to completion,'' Bailey said. ``It was not an easy decision to make to bring that here, but it is nice to now be in that position of offering everything.''
For NPE, the firm brought a series of auxiliary machines, allowing processors a quick overview of what may be possible beyond their previous knowledge of Kurz.
``You can see the light bulb coming on,'' Bailey said.
Kurz previously had that breadth of services available in Europe, where it is as well-known for its machines as its printing technology. In Chicago, it is showing a full line of decorating machinery, with hot-stamp machines for extruded profiles, in-mold decorating for injection molding, heat transfers, vertical hot stamping and roll-on machines.
Those machines are playing an increasingly important role as molders provide more value-added services, but try to avoid additional labor costs.
``What business is left in the U.S. has got to be automated,'' Bailey said. ``If it's not automated, it's just not doable for these guys.''
Kurz also is launching a high-security labeling program this year, bringing holographic images to in-mold seals for customers that must be certain no one has tampered with their product.
The project is launching for the pharmaceutical industry, said Gregg Metcalf, national accounts representative for security products. The makers of drugs prescribed for cancer, arthritis, diabetes and other diseases can have a specialized foil added to security covers to provide an additional level of assurance that no one has tampered with the product. Some necessary medications also are popular on the black market, Metcalf said.
``This is primarily to authenticate the quality of the product,'' he said.
