BOBST Italia Holds ‘Open Door’ Event, Demos Three Machines

Bobst Italia on May 30-31 held an Open Door event at its San Giorgio Monferrato Competence Center.
 
The RS 6003S gravure press in shafted configuration and two multi-technology laminating machines; the compact CL 750D and the CL 850D were on display with demonstrations.
 
In gravure, the Twin-Flow drying technology that was unveiled in 2017 on the RS 6003C HS high speed press configuration is now a standard feature of the machines in the RS 6003 platform.
The test job was a pet food-type application, printing 7 colors on a 12 µm PET substrate with latest generation sterilize-able polyurethane inks diluted with ethyl acetate only.

“The uniqueness of the BOBST Twin Flow technology in this respect owes to the air flowing on both sides of the dryer,” said Davide Rossello, process manager for Gravure and head of Bobst Italia’s Competence Center. “This avoids the formation of a skin layer that builds on the top of the ink in conventional systems trapping the solvent within, thus impairing its evaporation.”



The screen-displayed production data shown live at various stages of the demonstration, alongside 3D animation images allowing visitors to travel virtually inside the different technologies.

For the first ever demonstration of the CL 750D compact multi-technology laminator in the Competence Center of San Giorgio, BOBST chose a complex job type for chocolate bar packaging: A duplex construction composed of 15 µm metallized BOPP and 20 µm printed BOPP, where the adhesive was coated directly on to the metallized surface at high speeds. This included the use of a new, state-of-the-art monomer-free solventless adhesive technology from Sun Chemical.

“Visitors were clearly impressed by our demo on the compact CL 750D laminator in the light of the output quality achieved at the speed of 500 m/min” Process Manager for Laminating Corrado Periti, who operated the machine for the event, said. “The 2.4 gsm adhesive metering was uniform and constant at speed variations and the machine easily reached high production speeds without effecting the final product quality.”

The demonstration on the CL 850D laminator focused on a trending application of design enhancement aimed at increasing the packaging’s visual appeal at point of sales. Some selected areas of the design of the pre-printed and pre-laminated reels of the chocolate bar mock packaging were coated in register with a matt lacquer from Flint.
 
“We focused the laminating demonstrations on value-added packaging-enhancing applications that reflect current market trends” said Juan Cano, head of the Product Line Lamination, Bobst Italia “The converting industry knows that BOBST machines are innovative and efficient. To us events like the Open Doors are important not only for presenting the latest technical updates, but to show through the quality and functionality of the applications, how profound and unique our knowledge is of the evolving world of packaging and its requirements. A process guarantee that converting clients can rely on”.
 

The company said it welcomed customers from 23 different countries.
 
“We have organized for visitors to the Open Door event a ‘Think lean, create room for the future’ experience, to take them on a journey and illustrate the progression of the 3-phase renovation that began in 2016, a project to make Bobst Italia an ultra-modern facility,” said Michele Vitiello, managing director of Bobst Italia and head of Product Line Gravure. “This year will see the completion of a new 1,500-square-meter dedicated building to extend the existing 1,000-square-meter Competence Center. The new complex will house a fully equipped laboratory as well as a pilot coating line, alongside gravure and laminating machines. We are looking forward to welcoming visitors to our Competence Center and offering with future open houses a truly memorable experience.”