Kolbus to highlight its rigid box solutions at Drupa 2016

The new Kolbus SW 100 box-case processing line will available at the Kolbus stall in Hall 16/ C22.

“This is our youngest division for the luxury packaging industry. We will be producing rigid cardboard boxes with lids and metal fasteners on a fully automatic continuous flow line,” said Kai Buntemeyer of Kolbus. “This will be demonstrated at an unprecedented running speed of more than 2,000 boxes per hour, and format changeovers will be shown to be just as easy as on a modern Kolbus case-maker.”

Buntemeyer said for the first time product changes would be done by resetting a machine, rather than retooling it. “With this, minimum order quantities will drop dramatically, opening luxury goods market to small, artisanal manufacturers. The famous mega-brands will get the possibility to fine-tune their production to sales trends on a weekly rather than an annual basis. At the same time, the product quality that can be achieved is far superior than today’s market standards,” he added.

The Kolbus packaging technology consists of board feeder, puncher, magnet inserter, grooving machine, case-maker, inside lining machine, box-case process line and blank placing module.

“For quite some time, this has led some of our customers to use our case-making machines to produce robust, high quality boxes. Initially, we were unaware of this, as our sales partners sold the machines. We started getting the first concrete queries for actual packaging solutions in mid-2000s. The market for book binding machinery is healthy, but the growth potential is limited. The packaging market is far more dynamic,” said Buntemeyer.

The SW 100 box-case processing line consists of the SW 100 box-case machine and the SW.Z and SW.B blank and box placing machines. First, each board has to be flipped over so that the lining side is uppermost. Then contours and cutouts are created cleanly and precisely in one pass. The punch can be optionally fitted with an embossing stamp. A thin layer of hotmelt is applied via finely adjustable nozzles to permanently join the box to the coverlid. The hoppers of the placing modules can take flat punched sections (SW.Z blank placing module) or conventionally produced boxes (SW.B box placing module).

“By configuring these key elements, we can now offer flexible systems for automated production of luxury packaging, which support dynamic adjustment to constantly changing market situations,” Buntemeyer said.

Not counting Kolbus, India already has seven rigid box manufacturers selling their machines. These are Fuchu and Europrogetti represented by SLKCG, Emmeci by Anil Agencies, Sate by Integriti Consulting, Zengarun by Sodhisons Mechanical Works, Dongguan Longxingsheng Machinery by Ample Graphics and Zhongke India.