Eight innovations, three days, and 400 visitors from 46 countries: BOBST believes it will gain ongoing success from its recent COMPETENCE '09 open-house in Lausanne-Mex (CH)
For BOBST, listening to its customers is a way of life. Since DRUPA 2008, eight innovations have already been developed by its engineers, all of who are driven by a determination to deliver the tools customers need to meet today’s challenges. The purpose of the three COMPETENCE '09 demonstration days was to present state-of-the-art solutions designed to make it possible for converters to differentiate themselves in difficult markets. This message was very well received, with more than 400 visitors from 46 different countries attending the event at the BOBST COMPETENCE CENTER, which proved to be the ideal venue, and where 17 partner suppliers also participated to complete the production panorama.
Solutions for die-cutting and stamping
The EXPERTCUT 106 PER AUTOPLATEN® press, with a production speed of 9,000 sheets/hour, was used to show three innovations:
1) The cutting of a larger range of materials, right up to 4 mm in thickness.
2) The new generation POWER REGISTER II, which allows the reading of the print on the sheet from above or below, and is particularly useful for litho-laminated products or those with reference marks printed on the back. First introduced at DRUPA 2000, POWER REGISTER controls the cut to print register of the sheet before its introduction into the gripper bars, without the need for sheet edge contact.
3) POWER REGISTER II also now reads a variety of materials, be they metallized, transparent, black, or white because, thanks to a new generation of highly sensitive cameras developed by BOBST REGISTRON, the difficulties presented by reflection and transparency have been solved. POWER REGISTER II also uses ‘auto-training’ on the first sheet of the job to determine what angle the camera needs to adopt for that particular material.
The NOVACUT 106 E AUTOPLATEN® press on show was equipped with a HOTPLAST system, which makes it possible to work with a large variety of synthetic materials such as PE, PP, PET, and PVC. By heating the sheet from underneath and across its whole surface, it remains flat, which allows not only perfect stacking but assures a better heat stability. The quality of cutting and consequently stripping is excellent and, moreover, the changeover from hot cutting to cold cutting is extremely fast. Another important benefit of this solution is that it reduces tooling costs by making it possible to use standard cutting tools.
The EXPERTFOIL 104 FR stamping press with FOIL REGISTER was used to demonstrate two new concepts:
1) Hot foil stamping is notoriously difficult on substrates that have low surface tension, such as UV varnished boards without varnish cut-outs, or on coated boards. The PLASMATREAT system is a treatment allowing the successful application of foil to these low surface tension substrates.
2) Changeover times for repetitive hot foil stamping presses can be radically reduced with the patented SPEED CHASE system, developed in partnership with American company, UEI. Lighter, faster, and more precise, the SPEED CHASE is designed for hot foil stamping, and for stamping combined with embossing. The job storage plates that are used with the SPEED CHASE are prefabricated and come with the stamping dies ready located by the tool maker. The transfer of heat is better, changeover times are reduced and the positioning of the plate is simple thanks to the use of the BOBST’s CENTERLINE® system. Another advantage is that the whole system is operable by a single operator.
Solutions for folding & gluing lines
HANDYFEEDER was premiered on a VISIONFOLD 110 folder-gluer. This new feeder is a response to the market’s needs to differentiate themselves and to achieve higher margins from “Value Added” work – such as those produced from synthetic materials with UV varnishes, special coatings, etc – but which are susceptible to marking. The vast majority of feeder units require plastic blanks to be fed in one by one manually, by hand, in order not to mark them. The solution developed by BOBST feeds blanks from the top thanks to a patented system for blank separation. The net production from the HANDYFEEDER is significantly higher than that obtained by a conventional feeder, and delivers production of remarkable quality.
SPEEDWAVE module, installed on a MASTERFOLD 110, considerably increases the speed of production for crashlock boxes. Functioning without hooks, the unit widens the spectrum of complex boxes, windowed boxes, or disproportionate crashlocks that can be folded and glued. Setting is extremely quick, with 50% fewer tools to install than when using a traditional module, and adjustment is simple. The high speed of production delivered by SPEEDWAVE requires a state-of-the-art packing system.
LOCPACK at the end of the line makes it possible to maximize the machines potential of packing crashlock boxes in alternate orientations, in order to facilitate their packing into the shipper container.
ACCUBRAILLE module was shown on the EXPERTFOLD for embossing Braille in line. The new development can now run speeds over 100,000 boxes per hour, having previously run at 75,000.
In conjunction with the ACCUBRAILLE was an in-line quality control device making it possible to control the position and presence of the Braille dots at a speed of up to 350 m/min, this exclusive development has been made in partnership with Baumer hhs.
Among the other developments announced was the arrival of the AMBITION 70/106 replacing the AMAZON line. This new folder-gluer produces straight-line cartons, presentation folders and crashlocks cartons.
The STARFOLD, launched in 2007, has now seen the addition of a new STARTFOLD+ version. With blank alignment carried out by the patented ACCUFOLD system, the line can also be adapted with a new prebreaking module, when the quality of the corrugated board requires it.
At last, the wait is over! BOBST announced the launch of the new MASTERFOLD 170/230/300/350 line for the folding and gluing of corrugated board in May 2009. One of the Master technology machines of "The Next Generation", the new line will include ten innovations which require fewer adjustments.
Service products, such as the on-line breakdown service HIGHWAY VIEW, and the Internet spare parts ordering service, e-Shop, also met with great interest from visitors.
The three days of COMPETENCE '09 made it possible for the 400 visitors present to discover the efforts made by BOBST to deliver effective and powerful solutions to them.
The 17 supplier partners were: Actega – Albo System – Baumer hhs – Deutsche Leasing – GWPM – Heiber+Schroeder – Henkel – Hunkeler System – Lasertec – Marbach – M-real – Nordson – Plasmatreat – Steinemann Graphic – Stora Enso – UEI – Vitasheet.
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Bobst SA, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 2009