K2 Verpackungen Installs Second BOBST Flexo Folder Gluer
Extended production capacity for small-size corrugated board folding boxes. In late October 2014, one year earlier than planned, K2 Verpackungen GmbH Co. KG started working with its second Flexo folder gluer in the form of a Miniline FFG 618 Quatro. With this investment, the manufacturer which is located opposite the Prowell corrugated board factory in Offenbach an der Queich, Germany, is able to pursue two main aims: the efficient making of small folding boxes from corrugated board while simultaneously reducing the load on the FFG 924 NT RS Flexo folder gluer which was installed in 2010.
Both had become necessary because K2 Verpackungen had exhausted capacity for all three shifts at the FFG 924 NT RS far earlier than originally assumed. Following the commissioning of the new Miniline, the company is now able to devote all of this Flexo folder gluer's high production capacity of up to 20'000 folding boxes per hour to the manufacturing of larger packaging units.
"Both the reliability of the technology and the quality of the service were clear arguments in favour of continuing our cooperation with BOBST," explains K2’s Managing Director Carsten Zier. At the technical level, the Miniline FFG 618 Quatro combines an outstanding production performance of up to 26'000 folding boxes per hour with extremely rapid set up times, which can be shorter than even two minutes depending on the job. Zier goes on explaining that this allows the machine to provide optimum support for K2’s business model which is based on consistent, lean, highly efficient production coupled with outstanding packaging product quality.
That is why the new Miniline was installed directly opposite and facing the existing FFG 924 NT RS Flexo folder gluer. Zier explains the advantages as follows: "This set-up means our operators can move quickly between the two production systems." K2 Verpackungen also arranged for a second monitor to be installed at the FFG 618 Quatro’s counter unit to enable the operators to make corrections whenever required during live production without having to access the machine controller. Thanks to the Rapidset concept, it is not necessary to retract the machine assemblies, and the operators can set up the free print units during ongoing production. "The Posilock quick-mount system for die-cutting forms also enables us to switch rapidly between jobs," says Zier.
Various performance features such as for example, the lead edge feeder, the extremely high register accuracy between printing and punching operations, the "Multi-T" belts used for folding, and the top counter all guarantee that corrugated board folding boxes manufactured with the FFG 618 Quatro are of the very highest quality. Zier: "The new Miniline is the ideal way to meet our customers’ requirements both now and in the future."
In charge of commissioning a second BOBST Flexo folder gluer in the form of a FFG 618 Quatro in late October: Carsten Zier, owner and Managing Director of K2 Verpackungen, which is located in Offenbach an der Queich (left), and Plant Manager Matthias Heiler. The installation of the new machine was brought forward by more than a year because the existing FFG 924 NT RS which was commissioned in 2011, was already running at full capacity round-the-clock.
Bobst Meerbusch GmbH, Germany
