Bobst executives recently hosted a press conference to define the company’s newest product launches and technological developments. The reveal included the latest generation of laminators, flexo presses, diecutters, folder-gluers and other products.

According to Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO, the company has launched a new vision that will shape the future of packaging. These new technologies have been engineered to accommodate a complex supply chain, from the brand to the consumer.

“This new vision for Bobst is a revolution for us and a major change for our clients,” says Bobst. “In a nutshell Bobst is delivering solutions in not only machines and service but a comprehensive solution to the market.”

By adding data and connectivity to its equipment, Bobst is looking to provide sustainability and proximity to the supply chain. Bobst has developed products for four key industries: labels, flexible packaging, corrugated, and folding carton. The cornerstones of the product launches are connectivity, digitalization, automation and sustainability.

“Imagine a customer plant that is fully connected and capable of sharing data,” notes Bobst. “Data will be transmitted online with our cloud-based platforms, and every action will be monitored. In the end, this will bring more efficiency and agility.”

With robotics and smart systems, converters can become more efficient and reduce errors. Bobst Connect is the key product innovation behind this strategy. This open platform orchestrates connectivity and automation, from prepress to production.

Bobst Connect will help orchestrate the production process from the client’s PDF to the finished product and quality report.

“We want to help our customers optimize their production,” explains Bobst. “With data, connectivity and smart machines, we will be able to continuously improve. Maintenance is key to success, for the customer experience. We want to take our pillars and turn them into reality. We decided to limit our participation in exhibitions, but we’ll address our customers’ concerns by different means.

“The coming years will likely see a major acceleration of digital printing and converting,” adds Bobst. “While the solutions are becoming available, the biggest challenge for printers and converters is not the individual printing machines, but rather the entire workflow, encompassing converting. … We want to automate plants and job workflows with smart systems able to perform key operations, which will increase quality and save time, manpower and costs.”

The new products include Accucheck, camera systems that feature AI machine learning, and Masterstar, a brand-new sheet-to-sheet laminator that increases throughput by 20%. When asked about Accucheck, Bobst said, “We are very proud to launch a complete, industrialized solution. This system will automatically recognize text. This intelligence will help our customers greatly increase throughput and reduce costs.”

For the labels and packaging space, Bobst is highlighting the Master M6, a narrow web solution that was launched at Labelexpo Europe 2019. Optimized for food packaging and capable of handling flexible packaging materials, the press is fully digitized and automated.

The machine can now integrate Ink-on-Demand (IoD) and DigiColor inking and color control. Both systems work on all substrates and are suitable for all run lengths. The Master M6 is fully automated with Bobst’s exclusive DigiFlexo automation and is oneECG technology ready, delivering non-stop production through a centralized, digitalized press operation, and full color consistency with the master reference.

Bobst also stated the company will launch new label products in July 2020.

The new Mastercut 106 PER diecutter has new features that allow a fully automatic setting of the machine from “feeder to delivery” with minimum operator intervention. The new automation features enable a major setup time reduction of 15 minutes. Meanwhile, Bobst announced a new digital recipe management tool for diecutters called TooLink. In combination with automated functions, it can save up to 15 minutes per job changeover and simplifies the interaction between converters and die-makers. With TooLink Connected Tooling, chip-equipped tools are automatically detected by the machine and the production-ready recipe is recognized, leading to savings in time and waste, along with sustainability benefits.