Titan turns to India

India has long emerged as a premier manufacturing hub for multinational firms. The country’s stable annual growth rate, rising foreign exchange reserves and booming capital markets have not just attracted the IT and automobile industry: a number of other manufacturing sectors have also set up production facilities here.

It’s no surprise, then, that a leading supplier to the packaging industry, Bobst Group, has moved the production of its Titan ER610 slitter rewinder from Europe to its facility in India.

Manufacturing starts here

Bobst is not new to India. It first started operations in the country in 1995 as Bobst India Sales and Services. Later, the company acquired a small industrial unit in Pune - a city approximately 200km from Mumbai. It was then renamed as Bobst India Pvt Ltd, and further procured 67,000m² land, where the current premises started operations in 2002.

The original activity of this site was re-conditioning of Bobst machines, but in 2003 assembly of new machines and modules was commenced. This included production of Schiavi CL450 compact solventless laminator, winders and unwinders for Rotomec and Schiavi gravure and flexo printing presses, as well as the Bobst Loader and Martin Multiloader machines. A recent addition to the portfolio is the production of the Titan ER610 slitter rewinder for customers worldwide.

The Indian facility now has about 150 employees working in one shift. Its well trained technical personnel offer solutions for reducing waste, increasing productivity, machine upgrades, and operator safety to a growing number of converters.

It also houses a demo facility for the Bobst die-cutter and folder gluer as well as the Titan ER610, giving customers an option to run slitting trials before making their final purchase decision.

Launched at K 2007, the low-cost, compact slitter rewinder has already been installed by converters in many countries. The ER610 was designed and initially manufactured in the UK before production moved to India.

All components sourced and manufactured are said to be of the highest quality and from the best international suppliers, while the machine’s proprietary parts such as the Bobst’s 3G Cube are made at the company’s Swiss facility.

The efficient slitter

The ER610 is available in two widths - 1,350mm and 1,650mm - and runs at 450m/min, with an option for slit widths as narrow as 35mm. It can process plain, printed, coated or metallised film from 20 to 200 micron in thickness, as well as laminates such as film/film, film/foil, film/paper, foil/paper, film/foil/paper and paper from 40 to 200g/m².

The machine comes with Bobst’s 3G Cube control system, which is a non-language based display that only uses symbols and numbers. “The Cube system is non-obsolete and will always be supported by Bobst. It’s based on a compact flash memory, which provides a greater level of data security even when the quality of power input is poor. The Cube has a high-speed Ethernet port that enables remote fault diagnostics, saving time and increasing machine productivity,” explains Nilesh Pinto, senior sales manager, Bobst India.

The ER610 boasts a ball-lock system, has an enclosed blower resulting in reduced noise levels, an anti-static system that comes in handy at high speeds, and safety fencing and laser scanners on both unwind and rewind sections, which sound an alarm or stop the machine as required by EU standards.

This latest slitter rewinder has been designed to minimise set-up time and increase efficiency. “A lot of time is wasted on shop floors during changing of blades, cores, and other settings. The ER610 addresses this problem – it allows quick change-overs, resulting in efficient production,” explains Thomas Samuel, regional service manager, Bobst India.

Nilesh Pinto adds: “The machine’s line laser core positioning system enables the operator to reload new cores accurately. Its lay-on roll clamping mechanism reduces change-over times. The slitting systems available on the machine include shear, rotary razor (burst) or razor slitting in air or groove. Interchanging of blades is a quick, convenient and a tool-less operation and the operator does not need to remove the heavy shaft from the machine.”

Invest to save

Manufacturers are increasingly focusing on faster turnaround times and automation, which can eventually help converters save costs. Thomas Samuel stresses: “It is important for converters to invest in a technology that ensures minimal downtime. Investing in such machines is important even during the times of recession, as it will provide the converters with an edge in a market where margins are getting increasingly small.”