An Indian-made folder gluer was among three new products on show to MEA packaging printers at an ‘open house’ at the Swiss converting giant’s new Pune plant
Packaging printers and converters from the Gulf were among the customers who recently travelled to India to explore the new kit and discover how Bobst is maintaining its quality standards at its new overseas factories.
At Bobst India’s debut open house – dubbed Competence ’15 – visitors were introduced to the Novacut 106 ER inline blank separating die-cutter, the Expertfold 80 A2, and the brand new Lila II 145 A2 folder-gluer for litho-laminated and corrugated board boxes.
Moez Jebali, regional sales manager for Bobst Africa and Middle East, added that the event also demonstrated the company’s worldwide production standards.
“All visitors left with the true conviction that Bobst factories outside Europe are up to the standards of Bobst factories in Switzerland and Europe,” he said.
For packaging producers in the Middle East region, “there is a growing awareness of the need to improve efficiency and quality at the same time”, he told Packaging MEA.
“Competence’15 was the right opportunity to discover the latest Bobst solutions to address these requirements through automation in die-cutting using blanking and the improvement of operational efficiency and packaging quality in both die-cutting and folding-gluing, even with difficult job layouts and substrates,” he said.
Bobst’s Novacut 106 ER, which had its world debut at ExpoPrint 2014 in Brazil, offers automatic inline blanking at 7,000 sheets/hour and an improved downstream process.
The Expertfold range has a long folding section which enables running up to max belt speed 450m/min. The displayed Expertfold 80 A2 comes with Accufeed and Accucheck for 100% in- line quality check of blanks that can be performed up to 250m/minute.
Indian R&D
The chief spotlight was on the Lila II 145, making its global debut. Manufactured at the Pune plant, the folder-gluer can convert straight line, crash-hook and four-/six-corner boxes.
With a folding section that extends up to 5m and an ergonomic open frame concept, the machine can convert substrates ranging from folding carton to double-wall corrugated board.
Upendra Deglurkar, president and local entity head for Bobst India, described the machine as “totally designed in our R&D centre in India”.
“Our R&D effort on the Lila concentrated on: How do we optimise some of the best-suited drawings? How do we use the parts of other machines? If there is some part which has 10 manufacturing processes, how do we bring it down to 4-5 without compromising on the output?” he said.
“That’s competency and efficiency improvement. We invested a lot of energy into the R&D for the folder-gluer.”
Subhasis Roy, business director for Bobst India, said Competence’15 reflected the crucial role of new technology for packaging producers. “In order to be cost-efficient without compromising on your marketing needs, you need to innovate,” he said.
Growing market
He added that the company is expanding its market through its clients’ experience with second-hand kit.
“This has been the stepping stone for many of our customers because they realise that when it comes to converting operations, what is most important is the reliability, longevity and accuracy of the machine.”
60% of Bobst’s sales in India are to new customers, while the global figure is only 20%.
“After the change in government, the sentiment was so robust that we could see a reflection of it in our business,” he said.
“So 2014 has been quite good for us. In India it was about 60 new machines and their peripherals put together. We have exceeded our expectations of last year in terms of budgeted numbers and in terms of unit sales. Within six months we have sold eight ER machines.”
Marco Lideo, international sales manager for the Bobst Group, emphasized on the fact that the company achieves sales and technology advances through providing “its own competition”.
“We compete with ourselves,” he said.
“We have as a benchmark all our products and we look at what we’ve developed in order to develop a new product. Except for a few areas, I can say that all the competition looks at us, at our design, and even the colour of our machine.”
Bobst has more than 20,000 active installations in the world, he added.
“Converters who have an excellent past heritage can
build a good future,” he said. “This is what Bobst has accomplished here in Bobst India.”
Customer quotes
The concept of open houses is one of the most beneficial marketing tools whereby we are getting the opportunity of having dedicated meetings with the manufacturer, giving us the chance to see the facility and standards and get the feel of the organisation’s culture.
As far as the demonstrated machines are concerned, we saw top-quality, high- performance die-cutters and folder-gluers running with the highest expected performance and equipped with top-of-the-line options.
I was really impressed with the high standards and processes implemented in the factory, which was clearly revealed when we received the excellent output out of machines.
Growth along with increased demand for Four Films quality products dictates on us to keep investing in new equipment. Nonetheless, the instability all around our area is slowing the pace to a certain degree.
We are exploring the possibility of entering into the folding carton business. The demo was very useful for the project and gave a direction for our massive expansion in the coming years in folding cartons. Also we are amazed with Bobst’s setup in India. This is one of the best factories we have seen in our industry for machine building.
Chinna Durai Natarajan, vice-president, Flexible Packaging, UAE
I have excellent useful results from the demonstration of the Novacut 106 ER die-cutter with inline blanking and the Expertfold folder-gluer with Accucheck inline and Bobst’s new Lila II 145 Litho-Lam multipurpose folder gluer.
I believe that when a machine has the Bobst logo it can do miracles. Very soon we will be investing in the new die-cutter and the new folder-gluer.
Bobst’s factory in Pune, India is very much on par with European standards.
It was very useful to interact with the Bobst engineer right on the Novacut 106 ER and to find there is no significant trade-off to the upper grade machine (the blanking unit).
We had a good exposure to the Accucheck capabilities, which are mandatory for some special applications.
The Lila II 145 Litho-lam is a great choice for micro-flute converters, whom could easily overcome most of the classical defects that come out of the generic machines.
Definitely, our choice for die-cutting machines with a blanking option has been broadened. I highly rated Bobst India as I feel I am in Bobst Switzerland. Bobst culture is tangible in each and every corner in this plant.