On its stand at the K Show, Bobst focused on excellence in substrate functionality and process performance – in particular spotlighting the unique know-how of its dedicated team of process specialists, aptly named Solution Masters. Additionally, just a few months after premièring six web-fed machines and a host of new functionalities at the drupa show, the Bobst stand at K’2016 was buzzing with more new developments and must-have information on new products and services, while Bobst Competence Centers in Italy, Germany and the UK welcomed numerous customers who made the journey to see machines in live demonstration. These included the new K5 EXPERT vacuum metallizer, launched to coincide with the show.
Federico D’Annunzio, strategic products marketing director of Bobst Business Unit Web-fed, said, “K being the major international show for the plastics industry we decided to make it an opportunity for flexible materials converters worldwide to enjoy an all-round Bobst experience. Given the level of activity on the stand, and the number of visitors welcomed by our Competence Centers, it proved to be a winning proposition, especially with those converters travelling from afar. The quality of our innovative solutions, delivering both functional substrate and operational excellence, and of the services offered by Bobst to the film printing and converting industry, made a huge success of our participation to the K Show. We signed new contracts, achieved additional handshake sales and started negotiations on new projects, while other projects were finalized at the show or during visits to our Competence Centers. A good 60% of the visitors to our K stand were new prospects and their interest was spread across all of the leading-edge technologies and processes for printing and converting film substrates that Bobst provides.”
Bobst Solution Masters, who are specialists in vacuum web coating and metallizing, coating, extrusion coating, laminating, CI or inline flexo printing, or gravure printing, were on-hand during every day of the show to assist visitors interested in exploring their options within these processes. Extensively trained and developed over many years, the Solution Masters reflect the Bobst commitment to providing world-leading support both to customers and prospective customers, across all of its product ranges. As well as ‘picking the brains’ of Bobst Solution Masters, visitors to the stand particularly appreciated the flawless quality of the reels of printed and converted samples displayed on the stand – which also reflected a growing market interest in high barrier functionality for packaging substrates, machinability, sustainability, and ways of exploiting new applications.
Federico D’Annunzio said, “The wheels of innovation and customer satisfaction never stop spinning at Bobst. Alongside showing more conventional types of printed and converted work, including the quality that can be achieved with Extended Color Gamut printing or triplex lamination, we also displayed applications that are very topical in the industry. These included clear-on-clear labelstock, a technically demanding coating process for the production of “no-label-look” labels, as well as showcasing how the safety of UV ink printing onto food flexible packaging can be guaranteed when delivered by Bobst narrow- and mid-web inline flexo presses.”
Further samples on display at the show reflected the Bobst collaboration with leading suppliers to the film industry – especially with a view to assisting converters facing process performance challenges. One such was a new, fully integrated, process for the conversion of high barrier AlOx coated films. Developed by Bobst this process not only protects AlOx films produced on Bobst vacuum meetallizers, but also provides additional barrier functionalities while keeping other barrier properties unaltered, even during the more complex conversion processes required by some flexible packaging applications. Another example – a full PE laminate sample – showed the ability of Bobst gravure printing and laminating machines to process MDO (Machine Direction Oriented) films at high speed. In particular this showed the web handling performance of Bobst gravure presses in printing onto thin PE-based films and highlighted the opportunities for Bobst customers to extend their gravure operations to include PE packaging applications.
While the Bobst stand at K welcomed a continuous flow of visitors, including delegates from over 60 countries worldwide, Bobst Competence Centers across Europe put on machine demonstrations. In the UK, Bobst Manchester premièred the K5 EXPERT, the world’s highest productivity vacuum metallizer for packaging applications. Equipped with features that are unique, innovative and new to the industry, such as Automatic Sequential Control (ASC), the K5 EXPERT also incorporates other well-known Bobst waste-reducing technical solutions to deliver a total cost of ownership (TCO) that is 25% less than that of other vacuum metallizers on the market. Bobst also used the Manchester events to present its new AluBond process, which provides high metal adhesion and surface energy levels.
At Bobst Italia, in S. Giorgio Monferrato, demonstrations were carried out using two new Bobst gravure printing presses. The RS 6003C HS is a high speed line which offers a wide range of printing and converting options through dedicated configurations. The RS 6002C line is a shaftless press that provides ‘best-in-class’ print quality and features, as standard, the integration of electronic shaft and Bobst Registron register control, along with the TAPS system for automatic pre-register setting at the touch of a button. For lamination, the new CL 750D compact laminator and CL 850D laminator showed the operational efficiency and product quality which make them the best choice for converters in their respective classes of equipment.
The Bobst Competence Center for CI flexo printing at Bobst Bielefeld, Germany, presented in demonstration its newest machines. These included the MW85F, minimized waste, mid-web CI flexo press, which delivers high quality printing and can handle a mix of job lengths, from ultra-short to long, in the most cost-efficient way. Also presented was the new 40SIX, designed to meet the demands of large format and large volume production.