In an eight-hour shift this press output 162,136 printed, folded and glued boxes
Mitchel-Lincoln Packaging Ltd in Quebec, Canada, has established a record for producing corrugated boxes after installing a Bobst 8.20 Expertline flexo folder-gluer.
In an eight-hour shift the line operators output 162,136 printed, folded and glued boxes, acknowledged by Bobst as a world production record. Now the company is considering a second line to replace two older folder-gluers.
The company first installed its Expertline at the end of 2015, replacing a 30-year-old press. It went into the 220,000 square foot St-Laurent factory and was soon establishing record production levels.
‘If I had to pick a phrase to describe this machine, it would be total productivity,’ said company president Jimmy Garfinkle. ‘Not only did we replace an aging machine with the new capabilities, but we more than doubled our productivity on that line and the efficiency turn has been great!’
The Expertline is a highly automated and modular flexo folder-gluer line that combines multiple flexo press units with rotary die-cutter and folder-gluer elements, to handle corrugated boards up to 85.8 inches wide. It can convert up to 24,000 boxes per hour, yet only needs two operators. Changeover between jobs is as little as one to two minutes thanks to the set-while-run system and automatic plate changing and sequential order change technologies.
For shorter runs with more frequent changeovers, Mr Garfinkle said a third operator is added, ‘The downtime for changeovers on this machine is typically short to begin with, but when we have a third operator plating up, often while the current job is running, it further reduces downtime and increases efficiency. This helps us control the cost not only of our operation, but for our customers as well.’
