NEWS
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From left, a standard header bag, a foil header pouch, and ClearFoil(F)/Foil header pouch demonstrate how the header bag has evolved since Rollprint obtained its header bag patent in 1969.
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Rollprint Packaging Products Inc. (Addison, IL) is celebrating its 75th anniversary. The converter provides a range of formable, barrier, and peelable materials as well as bags and pouches targeting specific requirements. Last year, for instance, Rollprint introduced Duet, a peelable chevron header pouch designed to ease aseptic medical device presentation.
Company roots, however, stretch back to Schenker Printing Co., which was founded by Jack Schenker in 1933. The company served as a commercial printer for various industries, at one point printing catalogues for Sears Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward.
In 1937, Sydney Raike purchased the Chicago-based company. Shortly after, Schenker began printing paper packaging materials such as wrappers and boxes using letter press, offset, and lithography. In 1949, Raike added flexographic printing to Schenker’s expertise and opened Rollprint Products Corp. as a subsidiary. Rotogravure printing was later adopted, too.
In 1969, the year after Schenker and Rollprint Products were merged into Rollprint Packaging Products, Rollprint was granted a patent for a header bag. The breakthrough medical package was the result of a joint venture with Baxter-Travenol formed to develop a breathable ethylene oxide–sterilizable pouch. The pouch marked Rollprint’s foray to medical device packaging. In 1971, Rollprint began coating Tyvek, helping to introduce coated Tyvek to the medical industry.
In 1975, Robert Dodrill, a chemical engineer who had previously worked for DuPont, joined Rollprint as Raike’s partner. He saw an opportunity to serve the then-emerging single-use medical device market and focused Rollprint toward that effort, reports daughter Dhuanne Dodrill.
To serve the medical market, Bob Dodrill added laminating operations and increased printing capacities. In 1982, Rollprint moved to a modernized facility with 118,000 sq ft in Addison, IL. Dhuanne, who would go on to study chemical engineering, began working summers at Rollprint’s new location. Brother Doug, who would later become a mechanical engineer, joined in 1986. After Raike passed away in 1983, the Dodrill family acquired the balance of the company.
Three new high-speed, microprocessor-controlled pouch-making machines were added during 1986-1987. Dhuanne reports that during this period, Rollprint began launching high-barrier materials, including clear high-barrier materials that satisfied industry demand for better product visibility. “We were one of the first to introduce silicon oxide–coated barrier materials into the United States,” she says. In 1991, Rollprint added a high-speed 55-in. laminator, and then in 1998, a coextrusion coater/laminator, further expanding its materials science innovations.
Rollprint also helped advance sealant technology. Rollprint’s Allegro sealant line has been recognized by the DuPont Awards for Innovation in Packaging and Food Processing and by the Flexible Packaging Association’s (FPA) Achievement Awards.
“It has been great fun to create materials that offer different properties,” reports Dhuanne, who currently serves as Rollprint’s 4th president. “The medical packaging industry’s needs have evolved over time to emphasize both performance and cost efficiency, and barrier and sealant technologies have lent themselves to meeting those needs.”
Rollprint and the Dodrill family have also played key roles in standards development. Bob Dodrill has been active in the Flexible Packaging Association (FPA) serving on its board. In 1994, Rollprint was a founding member of FPA’s Sterilization Packaging Manufacturers Council (SPMC) in 1994 for which Bob now serves as the chair. In 2000, PMP News reported that the council had drafted the “Guide for Design and Evaluation of Primary Packaging for Medical Products.” The guide would later be recognized by ASTM and become ASTM F2097. Dhuanne, the chair of ASTM’s F02.50 subcommittee on package design and development, calls F2097 “a tremendous tool in that it provides an overview of necessary standards and industry guidance.”
“The SPMC has helped the medical device industry realize that converters should be involved in standards,” adds Dhuanne. “Converters help fill a void in standards development given their unique perspective on material performance and characteristics.” In addition, Doug, Rollprint’s vice president of technology, has been active in TAPPI. He currently serves as the extrusion coating technical program chair and has chaired the extrusion coating and blown film short course for engineers.
In recent years, Rollprint has expanded into international markets. First, the company partnered with Acme Packaging Co. Ltd. in Singapore to serve Southeast Asia and China. The two companies then formed the joint-venture Alliantz Flexible Packaging.
Future efforts will include international expansion and continued implementation of lean manufacturing improvements so that our products can stay cost-competitive,” says Dhuanne. “We realize that our ability to engineer cost out of our manufacturing, while still maintaining our high level of reliability and consistency, will help our customers meet their profitability goals.”
DuPont Medical Packaging recognized Rollprint at DuPont’s after-show event June 4 during MD&M East 2008 in New York City.
