‘Turbocharged’ New Book is a Problem-Solver on the Plant Floor

Unpopular opinion of the day: Corrugating machines do not always produce perfect board. When defects happen, crews need a remedy—fast—to keep end users happy. At many plants, machines built in the 1960s are still producing corrugated board; at newer facilities, recently installed machines run board at three times the speed of those older ones. In either case, things don’t always go as planned.

The TAPPI Press book Corrugating Defect/Remedy Manual can help. A project of the Corrugated Board Technical Committee (CORBOTEC) of TAPPI’s Corrugated Packaging Division, the book is now in its seventh edition. It is written and peer reviewed by experts in the corrugating industry who have a wealth of knowledge and a commitment to helping to make the industry better.

An excellent addition to any plant’s reference library, Corrugating Defect/Remedy Manual, Seventh Edition focuses on remedies and solutions past (such as fingered singlefacers) and present (including fingerless singlefacers and the latest advancements in high-graphics printing and digital printing.) It also addresses defects found in corrugated products. Every page contains color images and lists defects and their remedies.

Paper360° Editorial Director Jan Bottiglieri spoke to two of the book’s editors on the magazine’s podcast, Better Together: Rick Putch, director of technical services and process improvement, National Steel Rule; and Steve Rote, technical development director for Metsä Board Americas. Here are some adapted highlights of their conversation about troubleshooting machines on the corrugated plant floor—and how this impactful new publication can make a difference.

Paper360°: Thanks for speaking with me, guys! Tell me more about your involvement in updating the book.

Putch: Mary Anne Cauthen over at TAPPI Press asked me to be editor-in-chief. I didn’t really know what that meant, other than there would be a lot of responsibility and I wasn’t going to let her down. As I started to read the past edition, I realized how much regarding die-cutting was old; so one of my contributions was that I rewrote Section 3 on die-cutting. Then I brought in five other contributors to work on different sections.

Things are changing so rapidly, and everyone’s complaining about the same thing: plants don’t have the skill set to troubleshoot. This is one of the finest books in print that I’ve seen to help with that. It’s an amazing publication and will be so beneficial.

Rote: Well, my good friend Rick Putch reached out to me. We’ve collaborated and worked together for 20 years. I asked a couple of colleagues of mine to assist, and together we really give readers the full impact as far as troubleshooting and what’s required.

Paper360°: Who would need a book like this?

Putch: Any converting plant should get several copies of this and give it to their superintendents. Then they can understand that when they get a complaint about something, they can use this book as a reference—an educational manual. I really think you’d want a few copies in your plant. You’ll need more than one because people are going to refer to this.

I want folks to think of this book as something that should be used. It gives you a cause and it gives you a solution for that cause, directly across in a table format with pictures. This edition has been turbocharged!

Paper360°: Turbocharged—I love that! So it’s perfect for troubleshooters. In the corrugated industry, there’s always so much going on at once. What kind of mindset do you need to be able to be a troubleshooter in a corrugated operation?

Rote: That’s a great question because what happens to operators is that it’s very easy to get tunnel vision. If you have a problem, whatever it is, it is very easy to get focused on only one aspect of the machine. (As a consultant), it’s not unusual for me to point out that a plant’s “dry end problem” is not on the dry end, it actually starts at the wet end. So, troubleshooters need to be open minded.

Paper360°: What are some of the biggest changes from the sixth edition of Corrugating Defect/Remedy Manual to something that’s new for the seventh edition?

Putch: One thing that comes to mind is flatbed die cutting. The last time the book was edited, there were still a lot of hand-fed machines—such as a Miehle or a Thomson, which is a clam shell. There were references to those and some of the auto-platen machines, which would be a Bobst. So, some of the technology has changed significantly. I wanted to include more modern equipment, and the most current offerings that companies have for these machines.

There is so much going on right now in terms of expansion, adding lines, combining operations, or just smaller operations that need to have new capabilities. So much new equipment is being added in North America. The amount of money spent on capital equipment in the last 10 years has been unbelievable.

When you invest that much in capital equipment and don’t get the return, there needs to be accountability; but you can’t just have finger-pointing. A lot of times, a crew really doesn’t know where to go for answers. They can’t identify where the problem is. This book will help you identify that problem, and a fix.

Paper360°: What are some of the problems that this book can help identify?

Rote: I’d say the most common is warp, and there are several reasons for it. I think the book does a good job explaining many of those reasons, whether it starts with application or moisture content of various paper grades. It’s a subject we could talk about for a couple of hours, obviously! But this book does a good job of steering people in the right direction.

I mentioned earlier how people tend to get tunnel vision. I think the book allows people to open up and explore other parts of the process that may be affecting the product. It could be that the equipment may not be up to snuff. There may be some modifications or recommendations we need to make there. Really, the more information you have about all the parts, the more problems you can solve.