The folding cartons division of Bobst along with Artize Die Makers, CGSASP and the executive committee of Kanpur Press Owners’ Association organized a technical seminar which was well attended by printers and carton converters from Kanpur and Lucknow. Sachin Patil, national product support manager of the folding cartons segment in the Indian subcontinent for Bobst emphasized the company’s leadership in the industry with its wide range of specialty equipment to help converters achieve a variety of design specifications with utmost precision and speed.
Reflecting on the current trends in the market, Patil says, “As per global reports, in 2018 the packaging industry’s estimated value was approximately US$ 876 billion. Bobst alone caters to 53% of the overall requirement of packaging equipment worldwide, thanks to our unmatched solutions. In the European market, the packaging segment growth is extremely minimal as it is a developed market. In America, the carton industry growth is variable. The biggest market witnessing a growth in packaging is Asia.”
Patil asserted that there are several factors to support this claim – purchasing power in this region is extremely high, consumers are shifting towards more hygienic products, and the biggest factor is government support. The worldwide average packaging growth is 3.6% while the Asian market is growing at 5.2%. The Indian market for packaging is claimed to be growing at 12% – 15% year-on-year.
He said that the earlier demand for smaller packaging machines for small production is being overshadowed by machines for high production of smaller run lengths for supplying to the eCommerce giants. Bobst’s new FFG machines are able to perform 2-color or 4-color flexo printing, inline die-cutting, and inline folding and gluing operations – print, die-cutting, fold and glue and stack, and bundle are done in a single pass. The average change over time on this machine is close to 5 minutes. Bobst has itself installed close to 18 machines so far in this market.
Lastly, elaborating on the cost factor associated with Bobst, Patil said, “When one thinks of Bobst, factors that often come to mind are the availability of funds, business uncertainty, price gap, and affordability. In such a scenario, one must always look at the various scenarios that help in making a decision. At times, a Bobst machine can help you retain a customer. Colgate is one such brand that prefers only Bobst. There are several other brands out there that rely on the productivity and precision Bobst machines and hence prefer association with packaging companies using Bobst equipment.
“Automation and curbing wastage are two factors which can easily be achieved with a Bobst. The return on investment on a Bobst line with a volume of 3 lakh cartons a day and an increase in 10% of volume year-on-year will take less time than anticipated considering all the parameters associated with the production process.”
Sonal Kumar Khade from Artize Die Makers made a quick presentation about the various kinds of dies that the company manufactures and supplies. Kumar said that stripping dies offered by the company is one of the most important and in great demand currently.
Many of the company’s major clients such as ITC, TCPL, Parksons, and others are using these dies to increase their production efficiency. The company also makes and supplies a creasing plate for long runs or repeated designs. “With these, the converter doesn’t have to change the makeready as soon as the number of impressions finishes. From the first sheet to the last sheet, the creasing quality increases,” said Khade. Bhagat Jain, from CGSASP spoke about Cito creasing matrices which it supplies. He explained the importance of creasing matrices in the production process for maintaining quality and productivity.
