The Accucheck XL also made its debut appearance at the event
At the Competence 14 open house, held at the end of November in Mex, Switzerland, Bobst premiered a new folder-gluer for corrugated and litho-laminated box making.
Available in two sizes – Expertfold 145 and Expertfold 165 – and in several variants, the machine has been designed for both sheet plant and integrated manufacturers of fluted boxes.
Emilio Corti, head of sales BU sheet-fed, said, ‘We conceived the Expertfold 145 and 165 to reflect what customers told us they need from a folder-gluer. One feature they asked for was flexibility in the type and dimensions of the substrates that could be run. They also wanted good control of the blank as it goes through the machine in order to achieve high performance with excellent box quality. That control is particularly important these days with so much production being shelf-ready packaging or destined for auto packing lines.’
The design elements of the Expertfold include, Accufeed blank alignment that ensures precise folding; a high accuracy pre-breaker which ensure excellent performance on machine-erect lines; and a folding process that minimises fishtailing and gap.
The latter is aided by an extra long folding section which creates smoother folding. Along with creasing units at the entry, this ensures the high folding quality that manufacturers need today.
Able to fold and glue substrates from N-flute to A-flute, including double wall and litho-laminates, the Expertfold 145 and 165 can handle blanks of up to 1700 x 1100 mm in size and up to 25 mm thick when folded. The flexibility of the models means that they can also process blanks as small as 296 x 60 mm.
Jacques Reymond, head of product marketing BU Sheet-fed, added, ‘We’ve designed these new Expertfold models to be very robust, which means high levels of uptime along with superb control of the blank. At the same time we’ve made them truly user friendly. For example they have open side frames for ease of access, but they also have light barriers to protect the operators. Video monitoring helps the operators see what’s going on, while Accueject and other quality assurance systems mean that they can keep on top of quality throughout the run. As you’d expect, these machines are also modular in design, so they can grow with the customer’s business.’
The range of configurations and options available includes crash-lock capabilities, a 25,000 boxes per hour 4/6 corner unit and motorised/automatic setting versions. The high, 250 m/min, running speed of the unit means that end of line handling can become a bottleneck without automatic packing. This is why the company offers Impack solutions for straight-line, crash-lock and 4/6 corner carton packing which allow users to maximise performance.
Also making its debut appearance at the event was Accucheck XL, the in-line, zero-fault, quality checking device for corrugated folder-gluers. Shown as a concept version, in-line with the Expertfold 165, Accucheck XL uses a high speed camera and the latest image processing software to inspect every box in the run for colour variations or other defects.
This new concept creates a quality assurance system that allows manufacturers to meet today’s demand for faultless packaging, while still delivering the high speed production they need.
