Finishing & Screen Printing

Bobst Bielefeld presents a parade of novelties at Open House Flexo

Thursday 25. October 2012 - On October 9 and 10, Bobst Bielefeld hosted an Open House in its Technology Centre in Bielefeld, Germany. This event was the first of a series of in-house exhibitions which Bobst's business unit Web-fed held for the first time over a short period of time to present their wide range of printing and converting equipment for the flexible packaging industry. Together with the new F&K 20SIX CI flexo press lauched at drupa this year, Bobst Bielefeld, formerly Fischer & Krecke, provided comprehensive technical presentations and demonstrations all related to equipment and systems to enhance productivity.

Amongst the novelties presented was the new smartSET impression and registration system. Being a highly efficient alternative to the proven smartGPS(TM) offline system, smartSET is a non-optical, semi-automatic ‘on-board’ system that significantly reduces waste and set-up time. Unlike optical systems, smartSET works with all substrates including reflective ones and eliminates plate damage due to over-impression during the impression setting process.
More than an incremental improvement of existing processes, Bobst’s smartGPS(TM) continues to be the only system available for flexo printing equipment worldwide that ensures perfect registration and impression set-up while producing next to zero waste of substrate and machine time regardless of printed material, number of colours, drying characteristics of inks, operator skills, and other production conditions. Unlike systems which perform set-up in the press through a manual or automatic optical process of trial and error, smartGPS(TM) does the job offline at the plate mounting stage. The live demonstrations of smartGPS(TM), clearly illustrated the compelling advantages of the system with regard to saving time and substrate making it an extremely attractive investment not only for new but also for existing Bobst F&K flexo equipment.
With the smartCOL(TM) colour matching system, Bobst is currently developing the missing link to achieve a 100 % offline registration, impression and colour set-up of all manner of flexo print designs meaning the reduction of wasted substrates and time next to zero. smartCOL(TM) checks the ink prior to introduction into the machine, prompts necessary changes and makes sure the ink is truly ‘press ready’.
Last but not least, on the 10 colour press on demonstration, the new LEO (Low Energy Operation) system was demonstrated. The system is especially developed for the 20SIX CI press series and includes a number of technologies and features for reduced consumption of energy, ink, and solvent thereby not only considerably reducing the carbon footprint but at the same time significantly reducing production costs.