Surya Global Flexifilms. a subsidiary of Surya Food & Agro, based in India has purchased three Expert K5 2900 metallizers – the first of which was installed last year, with the second to be installed in Q2 and the third to be installed by the end of the year.

The incorporation of Surya Global Flexifilms in 2020 enables Surya Food & Agro – which produces the well-loved Priyagold Biscuits now available in over 20 countries globally – to produce its own films for packaging Priyagold products as well as for supply to customers both domestically and internationally. The purchase of the three metallizers will enable the company to produce metalized BOPP film including AluBond coated film using Bobst state-of-the-art technology.

The first metallizer which has been running since last year incorporates a High Rate source which gives a higher speed of operation and reduced distance between the boats giving better coating uniformity. It also includes a 700 mm coating drum, the largest in the industry and unique to the Expert K5 which improves collection efficiency by 16% maximizing productivity and providing production cost savings enabling Surya Global Flexifilms to produce high-quality metalized films at a lower cost.

Later this year, the second metallizer will be installed on-site, incorporating all the features of the first machine, this one will also include the unique Bobst AluBond process and Bobst Hawkeye. AluBond improves metal adhesion and dyne level on the most common film substrates as well as improving barrier levels on polyolefin-based substrates such as BOPP. Bobst Hawkeye is an in-line optical density deposition control and defect monitoring system.

At full metallizer speed, Hawkeye detects, counts and categorizes pinholes and other defects, alerting the operator so the issue can be rectified immediately resulting in less film waste. The last machine to be installed will be a twin of the first machine and means by the end of 2023, Surya Flexifilms will have three Bobst metallizers running in their factory.

Shekhar Agarwal, chairman of Surya Global Flexifilms, said, “When we decided to start producing our own metalized film in-house, we wanted a company we could trust. Bobst has a great reputation in the market and we had heard great things about AluBond. We are very happy with the first machine which is producing high-quality film and look forward to our other two machines being installed so we can start to produce AluBond film.”