Best Label, headquartered in Cerritos, California, with other plants in the Bay Area and Guadalajara Mexico, focuses on high-end silk screen label printing for the automotive, pharmaceutical, vitamin, and cosmetics segments. Ernie Wong is the company's principal owner and CEO, and Gary Ingle is Ernie's partner and Operations Manager. The company specializes in clear packaging where the back of the label is visible through the container. These double-image labels require a four color process then a white silkscreen then an image on the back that the consumer sees through the bottle. This specialization has put Best Label ahead of competitors who are not focusing on silkscreen as much.
Best Label operates 13 presses at its Cerritos plant, and nearly half of them are the very reliable Gallus R 160 presses from the 1980s and 1990s, which the company uses to do all their silkscreen work.
Gary Ingle, Partner and Operations Manager and Ernie Wong, Owner and CEO
Gary commented that "Gallus seems to be the leader in the industry for silk screen as far as what I've seen throughout the years. They really do put a lot of emphasis on that technology and have a really good reputation for silk screen printing. We also do cold stamping, which the Gallus machines handle really well."
Looking to improve productivity, Best Label took delivery of a new
Gallus ECS 340 in December, 2015, and its 13-inch width immediately opened up more capabilities for wider web silkscreen work and larger labels. So, upgrading to a new Gallus ECS 340 meant they could double or even triple their productivity versus the older presses.
"Gallus introduced their new ECS model that contained a chilled electrical cabinet. This was a problem solver. We no longer would have to worry about equipment breakdowns due to the extreme heat. Since we've been running our new ECS 340, this problem has been solved.
Speaking of chilling, the Gallus ECS 340's chilled impression cylinders also keep the web from distorting. "They really help a lot because the web doesn't get warm and you don't get wrinkles. You can actually take a roll of stock and print 8 colors and at the end it's still cool when it's rolling up which is great."
Continued Gary, "Gallus just makes a really solid, sound, sturdy press. And it doesn't vibrate. I don't get the type of bounce marks that I would get on some of the other machines. Plus, it's a servo press so there's no gears; everything's sleeve -- anilox sleeves, sleeve cylinders."
The Gallus ECS 340 comes standard with a dual doctor blade assembly and chambered ink system. "I like that," said Gary, "because everything's enclosed so you don't have an open tray with access to dust or anything in the air. And the two doctor blade system has a better lay-down. I can get a better print.
"The chilled impression cylinders just keep it printing, cool and flat," continued Gary. "When you keep everything printing at a good temperature, you don't want your inks to heat up, you don't want your doctor blades to get hot, and having this chilled impression drum is fantastic. I think that's one of the best things about it."
Gary and his partner are so pleased, in fact, that they've ordered a second Gallus ECS 340 for delivery in November 2016, just 11 months after taking delivery of their first.