Interview with Greg Jones, Executive Vice President at SUN Automation Group at SuperCorrExpo 2024.
Good afternoon. Tell us about your company and your products.
We started as a feeder company back in 1985 and became an OEM in 2012 with our first rotary die cutter. We just upgraded that to a new version and sold five in the past year. The new, more reliable, heavy-duty SUN 625 die cutter is now in use.
All the top five integrators have multiple SUN 625s. We’re excited about the upgrade, which makes the machine more reliable with more throughput, focusing on uptime. We’re also building relationships with OEMs trying to penetrate the U.S. market.
These global OEMs don’t have the aftermarket services infrastructure that we do at SUN. We carry over $20 million worth of parts in our Maryland warehouses and have around 15 to 18 service technicians working on equipment throughout the U.S.
These OEMs partner with us to distribute their equipment in the U.S., and we provide the aftermarket support to ensure reliability and uptime.
We have a timeline of SUN Automation’s story. We started in 1985 and became 100% employee-owned in 2013.
We acquired Langston in 2001, which more than doubled the size of the company. We established our China operations in 2007, with about 18 employees in Guangzhou manufacturing for the Asian market. Everything we make in Guangzhou stays in China or Greater China.
SUN Automation Group® is a global leader in providing innovative equipment for corrugated box plants. Their solutions focus on feeding, printing, and converting, aimed at increasing production, efficiency, and profitability
We started making feeders in 1985 and won a big patent lawsuit against Staley. Since then, we’ve sold 11,500 feeders worldwide. In 2012, we became an OEM with the SUN rotary die cutter. In Guangzhou, we make feed wheel boxes, with transmissions coming from the U.S. We also make ink systems, selling a few hundred a year, and do micro grind and vacuum transfers.
This is the new heavy-duty die cutter, promoting our new heavy-duty die cut section. The die cutter operates at 200 kicks per minute, going through vacuum transfers and final print.
In 2016, we placed the first aqueous single-pass digital printer in corrugated, which we shipped to the United Kingdom. We transitioned that relationship to Domino, based in Cambridge, UK. They are the OEM, and we manufacture the feed and transport system. It’s now marketed under the Domino X6 M50i.
In 2016, we moved into our new building, tripling our manufacturing capacity. We developed a partnership with Latitude Machinery in 2019, introduced our IIoT platform Helios in 2020, and started machine learning in 2021.
We partnered with PARA from Florence, Italy, for material handling and corrugated roll handling systems. We also partnered with Highcon for digital laser die cutting, AL-GAR from Barcelona, Spain, and eProductivity Software for leveraging our Helios.
This year, we introduced the new 625 and partnered with Versor Engineering, a specialty folder gluer with about 300 installations in Europe. Partnering with us allows them to support their machinery in North America.
At our facility, you can handle everything for digital converting. We can do digital finishing for printing and cutting. Let me show you a piece of machinery we’re going to run.
This is an automatic load tag inserter. Historically, in most box plants, someone’s job all day was to insert load tags into stacks of sheets. This machine automates that process, allowing the person to be reassigned to a different job within the plant.
The machine counts the boxes on the pallet, lifts them, and prints the load tag in real-time, including customer and order information. It inserts two load tags, which are food safety compliant.
We aim to provide reliable, easy-to-run equipment to minimize unplanned downtime, which can cost box makers $3,000 to $5,000 per hour per machine.
We also focus on sustainability. Our customers demand it, and we’ve taken steps to meet those demands. We bought a machine that recycles all our corrugated waste into dunnage for parts shipments. We’ve also reduced our carbon footprint by allowing employees to work from home one day a week, cutting down on commuting. We are continuously looking for ways to reduce our carbon footprint.
Maybe you have something to tell your viewers. We have 42,000 subscribers in our network.
We always strive to work closely with our customers, listening to their needs and collaborating to solve their problems. Our engineers develop solutions to meet the specific needs of box makers, focusing on reliability and minimizing unplanned downtime. We offer 24/7 support, guaranteeing a call back within 30 minutes and on-site assistance by the next morning if needed.
Thank you for your time. Thank you for the interview!
Thank you so much for the opportunity. Have a great day!
corruga.expert
