Bharat Gupta of Jaipur-based Shuban Prints tells how its Bobst Novacut 106 E with stripping die-cutter and Bobst Visionfold 110 A2 folder-gluer help the company produce cartons more efficiently with cost-effectiveness, less wastage and less manpower.

Shuban Prints invested in a Bobst Novacut 106 E with stripping die-cutter with top speed of 8,000-sheets/hr and a Bobst Visionfold 110 A2 with corrugation kit attachment folder-gluer. Both machines were installed last year. Explaining why the company went for Bobst, Bharat Gupta of Jaipur-based Shuban Prints said, “We produce monocartons and E-flute cartons. We were struggling with our existing India-made folder-gluer as it was not able to handle corrugated cartons. Even mono cartons were not moving well on the belt. E-flute jobs were tough for us as well.”

“The quality of the cartons was very important. Ultimately, we zeroed in on Bobst in 2018 and the next year, during Printpack 2019, the deal was inked,” said Gupta. Gupta said that he had been using four manual die-cutters and an Indian-made folder-gluer to complete print production, especially in postpress at Shuban Prints and was looking for automatic equipment to make print production efficient and faster.

“We have a complete setup, from receiving or generating artworks to delivering the final product. As business grew, we felt that post-press is the segment where we were lacking in terms of equipment and technology. Due to slow speed and manual intervention, the quality of the cartons were not up to the mark, especially when we needed faster conversion,” explained Gupta.

Increased productivity with Bobst

After the installation of the Bobst equipment, Shuban has successfully overcome the earlier limitations. “Bobst’s folder-gluer is stable. It folds and glues the sheets with perfection and efficiency,” Gupta said. “Cartons run on the belt smoothly. We run the folder-gluer for one specific carton at the speed of 50,000 cartons an hour, especially for side pasting, whereas with our Indian folder-gluer we were able to convert only 10,000 cartons an hour. Thus, we can fold and glue cartons five times faster. Quicker conversion has made us more cost-competitive in the market.”

Shuban was the first in the country to get version 3.0 of the Bobst Novacut 106. It is equipped with push setting for die-cutting plates; corrugation and duplex can be on single side lay; pressure setting is automatic, which reduces make-ready time; and clamping of dies is hydraulic/automatic.

Jobs rejection almost zero

“We are running at an average speed of 7,000 sheets an hour of duplex on our Novacut,” Gupta added. He said that with the Novacut, rejection of jobs is almost zero, piles are very well created and much less manpower is needed.

Gupta said that for future expansion, the company will opt for more machines from Bobst. “We are working towards opting for collection/stacking tables from Bobst. It is worth the investment, because conversion is much faster, requires lesser manual involvement and contributes to decent savings on wastage.”

Customers’ portfolio increase by up to 35%

With Bobst, Gupta said the company’s customers’ portfolio has increased by up to 35%. “The technology and the brand of the machine really matter when you approach print buyers. Our customers show confidence in Bobst compared to other brands,” he said. “Manual intervention in the jobs is very minimal and we were able to reduce our wastage from 3 – 5% to 0.9 – 1.2%. Bobst also provided onsite training to our staff for smooth functioning of the machine and helped make our staff skilled.”