Edale British manufacturers and engineers of world-class, tailor-made flexographic printing and converting solutions are delighted to announce that New York Label & Box Works are the first company in the US to invest in an Edale FL5, flexographic, single-pass, carton press and inline Flat Bed Die Cutter.

Incorporated in 1878, New York Label & Box Works have facilities in New York and New Jersey, and provide packaging services for companies throughout the metropolitan and surrounding areas.  Over the years, New York Label & Box have evolved and innovated to meet the demands of an ever more sophisticated marketplace, such as cosmetics, health, food, beverage, pharmaceutical, vitamin and nutraceutical industries.
New York Label & Box have invested in an FL5, 510mm, 20-inch, 8 colour, single-pass flexographic carton and label press, the ultimate single-pass press and most versatile on the market.

The first of ‘its kind’ in the US, the press comes with 1500mm in diameter unwind, allowing for much longer runs to be achieved before roll change is required and can handle substrates up to 700-micron board. It also includes Edale’s (AiiR) Autonomous inking, impression plus EZ register technology which guarantees precision throughout the print run, improves quality and reduces waste.

With their FL5 they will be able to achieve all their printing requirements efficiently in a single-pass, including reverse and topside printing, lamination, cast & cure, cold foiling, rewind facility, decurl and inline Flat Bed Die Cutting, including embossing and waste stripping. The finished cartons will then be effortlessly delivered onto a shingling conveyor for easy removal.

Darren Pickford, Sales Director, Edale, comments: “We have known New York Label & Box since 2014 and were delighted when they joined us last year for a virtual demonstration to see the FL5 press in production of cartons.  They were very impressed with the quality of the print, single-pass efficiency, and cost benefits.

Many businesses in the US recognise the benefits of flexographic printing in the label market; however, we are proud to announce that New York Label & Box are the first company in the US to invest in an Edale FL5, flexographic single-pass carton press.

They have for many years shown an interest in a flexographic printing solution for cartons and have now embraced the concept of single-pass carton production, and were not afraid to step out of the traditional ‘offset mindset’.

With their ambitious plans, we believe they will be pioneers of inline folding cartons and will lead the market. We look forward to supporting them every step of their journey.”

Steven Haedrich, President, New York Label & Box Works, comments: “We specialise in the Label and Carton Board market which is growing and the innovation and technologies the FL5 could offer us is exactly what we needed to handle the ambitious plans we have for our carton production.

We are very proud to be the first US company to invest in the FL5 flexographic carton press technology.  

This will be a ‘game changer’ for us and our customer, and we proudly lead the way …”

We are really excited to be the first company in the US and we are very confident that our investment in Edale and our FL5 flexographic technology will be the best possible solution for our customers.

It’s been an interesting journey for us to get to this position and I would like to share our story so far …

Our business started in 1878, and when my grandfather bought it in the Great Depression of 1930 we served the pharmacy industry, back then there was a pharmacy almost on every corner in New York City.”

Steven explains:  In the beginning we had sheetfed equipment as this was the industry standard however in 1969 we showed our flair for innovation and were one of the first companies to use Flexographic printing as a more efficient production method. We moved away from cartons for a while and became focused on labels, however the synergies of our customer base using both labels and cartons meant we soon realised offering both cartons and labels was a natural thing to do.

In 1993, we decided to expand our footprint and set up in New Jersey as we had a lot of our clients who were West of Manhattan, and it felt that the time was right.

It was in 2014, when we realised that our inline capability and quality would mean we could compete with the carton industry, however at this stage, we were not yet ready to make the leap into flexo for cartons.  We always knew that flexo was a viable option and the way to go for our business but finding the right equipment was not easy.  We experimented with a number of in-house solutions but these really didn’t give the full single-pass solution we were looking for.

In 2020, we decided that we really needed to evaluate the marketplace, and we looked at Edale, who we knew from the past. Edale seemed like a great company with great products and innovation.

Edale has a strong engineering focus and was the right partner for us as we shared the same longstanding heritage, and they have a personal approach ethos in dealing with their customers and this made the process very easy from inquiry to purchase.

A big factor for our investment was the ability to embellish inline Including top and reverse printing, film lamination, cold foil, and the use of speciality UV ink. There are so many advantages to run everything inline rather than on separate pieces of equipment as in a typical sheetfed factory which takes more time, needs more people and ultimately costs more.

Our investment will allow us to present to our clients new embellishment possibilities, a lower cost of manufacturing due to greater operational efficiency and speed of response.

Traditionally it can take between 8 to 16 weeks for carton production. We aim to reduce this time by at least 50%.

We have taken the opportunity to give our customer the highest quality, lower cost and a quick turnaround bringing a focused ‘Just in Time’ approach to stock and inventory control.”