Converting Delicate Nonwovens

The Customer

The customer is a producer of self-adhesive labels, tapes and shrink-sleeves serving customers in markets across the United States, primarily serving the food and beverage, lawn and garden, and pet food sectors, among others. They are focused on continuing to innovate label and packaging products to help their customers stand out on retail shelves. 

As flexible dies began to gain widespread use, Wilson saw a potential opportunity for this customer to save cost on the flexible dies they were having shipped from a manufacturer across the country. The customer’s relationship with Wilson continued to grow since they were satisfied with the flexible dies they received, while also enjoying the savings on shipping costs due to their close proximity. 

The Challenge

The customer’s general manager sought advice from Wilson Manufacturing on a complex project that represented a big growth opportunity for their company. 

The customer had been approached by a consumer goods manufacturer looking to gain efficiency by producing a product using rotary die cutting. The product required the use of a unique material—a thin, delicate grid-pattern non-woven fabric. The material needed to be cut without piercing the backer, which was a sturdier, yet still thin, non-woven material. 

The general manager had been told by another die manufacturer that it wouldn’t be possible to create a die that would yield the results the customer needed. Because this order represented such a large piece of potential business, he had sought a second opinion at Wilson. His Wilson customer service representative said that they would try, and he brought the material in to conduct some tests.

The Solution

Leveraging the project database and their experience, the Wilson team got to work brainstorming on how they were going to die cut the new material. Not only was the material very delicate and even flimsy, it also required FDA approved lubrication and coatings on the dies used to cut it. 

The Wilson team created a sample die and ran the material with great results. They sent the samples to the customer to demonstrate the sample die’s capabilities. Then, the Wilson team worked alongside the customer to refine the output, bringing the tolerance within the acceptable range for the consumer products manufacturer.

After successful testing, the Wilson team successfully manufactured the flexible dies according to the customer’s specifications. 

The Results

Due to the customer’s ability to die cut this difficult material, they ultimately won the business they were seeking, which resulted in multi-billion unit orders and significant revenue. 

Achieving this desired outcome for the customer strengthened their partnership with Wilson, as Wilson continues to be their preferred rotary tooling supplier today, especially for complex projects. Because of Wilson’s willingness to go further than other tooling manufacturers to solve this customer’s problem, they were able to deliver results that made a significant positive impact on both the partnership and the customer’s organization.