Dutch manufacturer Maan Engineering has elected to work with Vetaphone for its corona treatment requirements. Part of the Maan Group, the company, which is based in Raalte, was established in 1986 by Andre Jansen and his wife Mariet initially in the world of adhesives for carpet tiles and latterly in the building and construction industries through Maan Special Products (MSP), created in 2002.  As the company expanded its expertise, Maan R&D Division was launched in 2007 to cater for more advanced adhesive requirements and applications, which in turn saw the company become involved in the linerless label market in 2011.

The linerless concept is complex, both in its adhesive element and the capital equipment required for production, and it’s in this area that the company sought advice on surface treatment and turned to Vetaphone, located in nearby Denmark. Maan prides itself on the quality, speed and intelligent control of its roll-to-roll lines that allow converters to manufacture clear-on-clear as well as linerless labels in one single pass.  The Maan coating unit can be integrated in the production line or used as a standalone unit.  The latest hybrid can laminate and produce linerless on a single machine.

The common thread running throughout the Maan Group is sustainability and its products showcase its ability to assess a customer’s exact requirements and deliver a tailor-made solution that is both efficient and ecological as part of the circular economy.  This sits well with Vetaphone, whose technology is the preferred choice of more than 80% of the narrow web sector, and whose philosophy is one of matching specification precisely to production demands.  In Maan Engineering’s case, this usually involves supplying corona treaters in 520mm, 620mm, and 820mm web widths. 

Commercial manager at Maan Engineering, Roel de Ruiter, comments, “Initially we saw Vetaphone as just an ancillary supplier – but have grown to appreciate the wealth of knowledge it has on surface treatment and the quality build and precision control of its equipment, which perfectly complements our own.” 

Picking up the story, Dirk Den Haese, Vetaphone’s Benelux sales manager says he first established contact eight years ago with Wijnand Florijn, Business Development Manager at Maan Engineering.  “We met in Holland to discuss Maan’s need to improve the surface of the substrate and how this could be done with corona-treaters.  A few weeks later he called me again because he had a project with a potential customer, so I arranged a meeting with Wijnand and Jan Teunis (System Architect) to discuss what Vetaphone could offer – the rest is history!”

Wijnand Florijn has great knowledge of hotmelt, which is essential expertise for the Linerless Label machines manufactured by Maan Engineering in Raalte, where they also produce small lamination machines with PUR Hotmelt.  This is Maan’s own recipe, based on the close relationship with Evonik in Germany that supplies the custom-made chemical compound.  In addition, they said to be the only one in the industry producing biodegradable hotmelts and waterborne dispersants for inks.