Packaging machinery manufacturer Bobst will celebrate 75 years of designing and producing folder-gluer machines this year.
Philippe Milliet, head of business unit sheet-fed at Bobst, says, “The success of our folder-gluer equipment over the past seventy-five years is the proof that passion and innovation are part of our DNA. Over the years, customers have demanded equipment that runs faster and faster, is more and more efficient, and can deliver boxes that meet increasingly stringent quality requirements across a whole range of packaging markets.”
Bobst says it has consistently invested around six per cent of its annual turnover into research and development. This has allowed the company to develop innovative new systems, equipment and processes, many still patented. For 75 years, Bobst has seen the roll out of technologies such as the blank aligner; the crash-lock module; four-corner box folding systems; the flipper-ejector; the Gyrobox for the production of complex boxes in a single run; Braille embossing; and zero-fault quality checks, in-line and at full running speed.
Millet says, “We are continually developing the sophisticated materials and technologies that allow us to deliver all this, while maintaining the same reliability and longevity as those very first machines.”
In 1942, Bobst set up one of its first machines, a PCR382, the Zeiler company near Bern, Switzerland. This same company, under its current name Limmatdruck Zeiler, remains a Bobst client.
Today’s client can purchase complete folding-gluing lines. Bobst says its lines combine highly configurable machines with top-of-the-range peripherals to provide integrated and automated solutions for anything the customer might need. The company sells its folder-gluers worldwide with a presence in 50 countries.
