Italy: Euromac

A pioneer Italian slitter rewinder manufacturer in the early 1960s, Euromac has sold more than 1,500 machines worldwide. All mechanical parts and components are manufactured in the company’s premises, and being fully self-supporting both technically and financially has proved an advantage during the economic downturn.

“We have seen a great increase in sales during the past few months, as well as an increased demand in enquiries from all parts of the world,” Hendrik Van Rooijen tells Converting Today: “We have never really suffered from the world economic crisis, since we specialise in slitters for a very wide application field. It is true that the general flexible packaging converters for packed foodstuffs have delayed their investments, but on the other hand we have seen a good increase in other specialities such as alufoil laminations and PVC. This shows that the pharmaceutical related investments have not really suffered from the economic downturn, since the product has a higher added value.

“Euromac has proved to be one of the better choices for these applications by offering the top-end technology at a competitive price; that is why international groups like Alcan have placed multiple orders with us in the first part of 2009. These all involve fully automatic slitters with robotic or semi-robotic roll off-loading systems. Also, many of our slitters are now equipped with our own automatic knife positioning system that allows dramatic time savings during job changes.”

Another commercial plus is Euromac’s ablilty to develop specialised machines ‘whilst still maintaining price competitiveness’, he adds. This year, many large slitters have been developed for the building and automotive markets, all featuring very large roll diameters to 1,500mm. They have to produce slit rolls that are 100% free of defects, so are fitted with various inspection systems.

Another important project that has been very successful and has shown the ‘Italian way to approach technical problems’ has been the co-operation between Euromac and Filippini & Paganini for a complete line to unwind, flexo print, slit and rewind with non-stop cycle and glueless core application. This machine has been developed with an ‘extremely satisfied’ German customer. Euromac supplied the unwind, slitting and patented rewind sections, whilst F&P provided the flexo printer.