BOBST’s Open House Draws Crowd for Demonstrations, Solutions

BOBST’s Open House – COMPETENCE 18, which took place June 5-8 in Switzerland – attracted more than 600 visitors.
 
“We develop our solutions with our customers in mind and all the direct feedback we receive at events like this helps us to improve even further,” said Philippe Milliet, head of Business Unit Sheet-fed. “Many attendees were surprised by the pure breadth of what BOBST offers. BOBST is an expert in substrate processing, converting and printing, and it was very rewarding being able to demonstrate several of the company’s most innovative solutions first-hand, and to talk with visitors about the very tangible difference we can make to their businesses, now and in the future.”

Attendees were able to see live demonstrations of selected key BOBST machines, and to hear from BOBST Services on some exciting developments.

Highlights included the live demonstration of folder-gluer EXPERTFOLD 165 with the automated packer SPEEDPACK, the natural extension of a corrugated folder-gluer. SPEEDPACK bundles a large range of box formats and types, from solid board up to double wall corrugated board boxes, delivering perfect and smooth high-speed packing.

There were live demonstrations of MASTERCUT 106 PER and MASTERCUT 145 PER: the most automated and productive die-cutters on the market.

In addition, attendees had the chance to see EXPERTFOIL 142 in action – the only genuine size VI hot-foil-stamper in the world, and the only one with 600 tons of embossing pressure. It allows users to put more blanks on every sheet – up to six in format VI instead of only two in format IIIb.
 
MASTERFOLD 230 was another popular machine demonstration. With GYROBOX XL, it can rapidly produce complex designs in a single pass, particularly e-commerce boxes.

On the printing side of things, a static module of M8 LEMANIC inline flexo printing press was available at the event. Folding carton converters who attended were pleasantly surprised with its heavy-duty manufacturing and advanced technologies, and recognized the extreme convenience of in line printing and converting, from a web substrate. The high level of digital automation was commented upon, and converters saw the technology as ideal for both web to sheets and web to diecutting, for short, medium and long runs.

Visitors learned more about THQ FlexoCloud, a fixed color palette solution for corrugated board post print applications, considered a quantum quality shift in post-print flexo.

The Extended Color Gamut (ECG) process was a hot topic, in particular the digitization of color matching. Converters were surprised that flexo could achieve what offset in the past years had tried for years with limited success. They recognized the immediate advantages in flexibility and time-to-market when using the ECG technology in combination with Digital Automation in flexo presses.
Several of BOBST’s service offerings drew a lot of attention as well – in particular the new Digital Inspection Table, a novel technology designed to drive quality assurance, productivity and virtually remove print production errors. The Tooling solutions on show were also a constant attraction for die-makers and converters alike, with continuous demonstrations of the various pieces of equipment that optimize productivity on any die-cutter.

“These Open House events really do feel like inviting guests into our home,” said Milliet. “It is such a privilege for us to be able to demonstrate our passion and innovation to people who can really benefit from it, and we are thrilled with the positive comments we have heard from all the attendees.”