Receipt and label supplier, Iconex based in Morristown, Tennessee, has installed four Martin Automatic MBS splicers to support the company’s growth in innovative labels.
The new MBS splicers were fitted to both existing and new ETI Cohesio lines. With a wide range of capabilities on different stocks, the MBS butt splicer is ideal for flexible production capacity. But, with the rapid and unprecedented spread of coronavirus across the US, the machines have been pressed into service by Iconex switching part of its label production capability to converting paper rolls into hand sanitising wipes.
The company is currently producing around 20,000 rolls/day for a wipes customer that would gladly take more than twice that capacity. However, Iconex has a long-term label contract with a major international online retailer that it needs to fulfil, and e-commerce has seen a substantial increase since the onset of the virus. To help meet its customer’s need for wipes, Iconex has started converting the product on one of its slitter/rewinders that is customarily used for cash register rolls. Iconex turned to Stewarts of America, a South Carolina-based manufacturer of precision perforation technology to supply a perforating unit on an accelerated lead time.
Director of technical innovation, Jim Price, explained, ‘We have had other brands in the building that we couldn’t get to work, where the factory support was non-existent. By contrast, some of our Martins date back to the 1990s and are so reliable that we never give them a second thought – they run like they’re brand new, they never break, and never miss a splice – and they’ve been doing that 24/7 for more than two decades. That’s the kind of predictable component you want in your production. Why would you mess around with anything else when you have that sort of consistency in your plant?’
Iconex has two facilities covering a total of 400,000sqft in Morristown, plus an additional site in nearby Jefferson. In total, the company now employs close to 500 people in Tennessee with production split between label and point of sale (POS) products.
