MeadWestvaco Enhances, Broadens Popular Crescendo Gradeline

The Crescendo characteristics that customers care most about – the sheet’s high-brightness and blue-white styling – have not changed.

20/10/06 MeadWestvaco is launching an enhanced Crescendo gradeline that retains the premium paperboard’s most popular characteristics, but broadens its grammage range, adds a coated-two-side (C2S) offering and improves its on-press performance.

The Crescendo characteristics that customers care most about – the sheet’s high-brightness and blue-white styling – have not changed. Nevertheless, the sheet has been improved in other ways that will benefit both end-users and converters.

“We took a market-driven approach, leveraging our knowledge and experience to enhance Crescendo in ways that meet our customers’ existing and emerging needs,” says Andy Luke, senior marketing director, packaging, for MeadWestvaco’s Packaging Resources Group.

The genesis of the changes lies in a strategic decision to shift production of Crescendo to MeadWestvaco’s most modern paperboard machine, where enhanced capabilities and greater capacity could be wrought.

With the shift, the company now offers Crescendo coated-one-side (C1S) in a broader grammage range, with the introduction of a 350 gsm sheet. End-users who want to package all their products in the same paperboard for the sake of brand uniformity can now use Crescendo for their full range of packaging needs.

A C2S version of Crescendo has also been added, further rounding out the gradeline and providing new options to customers in the paperboard market. It features the same smooth, bright, blue-white printing surface on both the front and backside of the sheet, resulting in graphics and brand messaging that are bolder and sharper than those on the uncoated backside of typical C1S grades. It also provides improved backside performance in demanding print-production techniques, such as film lamination.

In addition, since making the shift, MeadWestvaco has doubled its capacity to manufacture Crescendo, which will help the company meet growing customer demand for the product worldwide.

Improved On-Press Performance

The sophisticated online process controls that accompanied the shift to a new paper machine have also improved Crescendo’s reliability and on-press performance. For example, it is now dramatically smoother, offering improved printability on both sides. It also boasts enhanced uniformity for better registration through press and greater consistency in die-cutting, embossing, foil stamping, engraving, scoring and folding. Caliper, coat weight, curl and color are more consistent as well, improving print quality and delivering converting efficiencies.

“At the end of the day, we know whiteness and brightness are important to the packaging market,” says Luke. “But what’s more important is how the product performs day to day, run to run. So, we developed a sheet that satisfies our customers’ styling requirements, supports their growth and meets their needs for greater brand uniformity, but that also runs reliably and consistently in converting plants and on filling lines.”

Crescendo’s brilliant aesthetics make it a perfect choice for packaging that must stand out on crowded retail shelves. Luxury items, such as fine fragrances, cosmetics, jewelry, confections and spirits, personal care items, tobacco, media, pharmaceuticals and software are just some of the many packaging applications for the board. It is also ideal for products that are sensitive to packaging that can affect their scent, taste or purity, plus it resists color fading common to optically enhanced sheets.

With its ease of printability, Crescendo is also well-suited for a wide range of print-production projects, including postcards, greeting cards, publication covers, brochures and reports, tags and labels, point-of-purchase displays and compact disc inserts.

Available globally, Crescendo C1S is offered in 190 – 350 gsm (92 brightness), while Crescendo C2S is offered in 210 – 460 gsm (92 brightness).