Hallmark Lawrence Production Plant

For out final Industry tour of the semester, our materials and processes class toured the Hallmark Production Center located in Lawrence Kansas. To them the greeting card is not dead, it’s very much something they are trying to keep alive. At this Hallmark manufacturing facility they produce greeting cards, envelops for cards, as well as boxes for cards. Hallmark is an international seller of cards, with their headquarters in Kansas City, Kansas. Hallmark operates a wide chain of retail stores specializing in seasonal gifts, cards, and trinkets. They also sell cards in major retailers like CVS, Walmart, Target, and Walgreens. In the recent years, many people have been embracing technology like emails, texts, and e-cards to share information, messages, and memories. Millennials are especially unlikely to buy a card. In the US, total greeting card industry revenue declined, much like other paper mediums like newspapers. “Our primary customer today is someone who’s been using our product for years and years,” says Paul Barker, vice president and general manager of Hallmark’s digital division. “But most people think of Hallmark today because of the presence we have in the analog space ... We don’t have a lot of presence in the digital space.” It sounds like Hallmark needs to reimagine themselves as a company if it wants to survive.  They will likely need designers for that change to digital. For right now though the company’s products remain very physical. They are using Paper for almost all their products, but also adding materials like ink, powdered nylon, metal, and “Flitter” (glitter for those outside the industry). Their most common paper grade they use is a “94 Bright” which is a high grade paper that is bleached. The paper often starts in rolls that are then cut into smaller sheets that are printed with card designs. The sheets of paper are then fed into a Die-cutting machine (similar to ones we have seen at Lawrence Paper Company). The process uses a die for cutting a greeting card out of sheet. The die is the term for a metal card cutter. Joining and Finishing processes ranged widely based on the design of the card. Some of the more interesting ones we saw were Foiling, Virko, and Flitter. Foiling is where Hot foil is stamped onto a card to create a shiny effect. The die is heated in the press and the foil is stamped into the card. The process can be used for wording or highlighting part of the cards design. The Virko process is the name given to the texture and colour attached to greeting cards by thermography. The cards are placed into a press, a special powdered compound is dusted onto the paper and fused by ink to the fresh ink. Raised lettering or designs are made with this process. It can also be done with powdered nylon to give the card a plastic sheen. plastisol (heat activated glue) was popular for the card, box, and envelope joining because it was not time sensitive and machines did not have to be regularly flushed out. 

Other processing included puff printing, tinting, digital printing, repousse (faux metal), and spot coating. Forming technologies included machine folding, electrostatic chamber for flocking adhesion, Die cutting  (magnesium die and brass die), and Laser cutting. My favorite process was the laser cutting on cards because they were able to reveal multiple colored images and graphics without printing. My overall impressions were good. It was a fun tour and the guides were knowledgeable, they were engineers at the plant.  Hallmark was SO 14001 certified, which is the international standard certification for improving environmental performance and procedures. It shows that a company understands the environmental consequences of its activities and has put in place a series of measures to reduce its impact on the environment. Hallmark emphasized that they use “sustainable forests when sourcing their materials.  While I don’t think the card is about to disappear, I do think that it’s going into a downward spiral.  I hope that Hallmark can find a way to connect with younger generations.