BOBST presented guest converting companies with a program dedicated to advanced laminating technology on October 20^th and 21^st, 2015. The program included live laminating demonstrations of a BOBST CL 1000D laminator in a real production environment in the production plant of BOBST customer Clear Lam Packaging Inc., in Elk Grove Village, near Chicago, IL,  as well as seminar sessions relating the latest updates in the field of adhesive formulations and technologies.

Each day began at the Holiday Inn Elk Grove where Todd Blumsack, Vice President Business Unit Web-fed, Bobst North America Inc. welcomed the guests before inviting Frank Passarelli, Product Manager, Printing, Coating & Laminating to introduce the range of BOBST high performance laminating machines. The range overview was followed by a detailed explanation of the features of the CL 1000D that are key in determining the efficiency of the equipment. In particular, there was focus on the drying tunnel with dual technology nozzles, the flexo coating trolley, and the in-register cold seal system. These distinctive technical features were complemented by the calculation of the significant waste and operating cost savings they generate.

Guest speakers completed the overview of the state-of-the art industry. Larry Jopko, Technical Service & Development, Dow Chemical, addressed the technological progress of adhesives and the development of the latest formulations to date. Representing another giant of the adhesive industry, Guenther Hering, Vice President Flexible Packaging, Henkel Corporation, presented the Group’s three business units and the company’s global capabilities for adhesives, highlighting their newest adhesive formulations with a high solid content.

BOBST extensive capabilities and range of services for North America covers the whole printing and conversion processes and their optimization. BOBST Services were presented in depth in two separate sessions. Massimo Ardito, National Service Manager at Bobst North America Inc. illustrated the support organization, from the teams of skilled in-the field technicians to the large local inventory of parts for immediate shipment; the prompt and timely response for support by a person (no voice mails); and a host of equipment and services dedicated to maintain and improve the performance of installed equipment.

The features and functions of e-Services were presented on alternate days by Mathieu Robyr and Reuben Petty, two of Bobst North America’s e-Services product managers. Their presentation detailed the clear advantages of using analytics in terms of plant planning, production monitoring and improvement, as well as relative prototype costing for new contracted products. BOBST remote monitoring services enable a real time overview of the shop floor to locate critical issues, track any downtime and receive automatic notifications by e-mail or text via dedicated apps. All e-Services are aimed at achieving the best possible productivity levels of installed equipment.

After lunch the action moved to the production plant of Clear Lam Packaging in Elk Grove Village, one of the company’s two facilities near Chicago where Tom Jacques, Business Development Manager, Bobst North America Inc., led guests through every stage of the two demonstrations that were run on BOBST CL 1000 duplex laminator. 

For the first job the CL 1000D was equipped with the flexo trolley, which provides the highest performance and quality in coating solvent-based adhesives directly on thin alu-foil. The alu-foil was laminated to a PET film at a speed of 1470 ft/min (450 m/min).

The second job saw the solvent-based lamination of two clear films – PET and LDPE – at the speed of 1,470 ft/min, again using the flexo coating system. This kind of application is especially critical because of the difficulty in achieving a total transparency of the laminated web. This was an actual production run of a laminated material that Clear Lam provides their customers for packaging of fresh produce, such as vegetables or meat. This type of packaging has no printing on it in order to enable full visibility of the packaged item. At the end of the run, guests were able to check the laminated material taken from the machine to determine the quality of the flawless output 

The CL 1000D used for the demonstration, is one of two CL 1000D machines in the Clear Lam production facility. As the second machine was completing the startup procedure before entering production, it was possible for visitors to view it up close in between the two demonstrations, as well as the interchangeable trolleys it is equipped with – gravure, solventless and flexo – to carry out different packaging applications. 

“We thank everyone who attended for spending the day with us and we thank Clear Lam Packaging for graciously opening their doors to us and their industry colleagues. We enjoyed having the opportunity to share the technical capabilities of the BOBST CL 1000D and we invite those who did not get the opportunity to see this machine in live demonstration to contact us to find out more about this machine and other BOBST Web-fed solutions,” stated Todd Blumsack, Vice President Business Unit Web-fed, Bobst North America Inc.