Pictured above: Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO, Bobst Group
At drupa 2024, Bobst announced its latest solutions and strategic partnerships to help shape the future of packaging.
Bobst’s solutions contribute to a new era in packaging where the entire production line is connected, enabling seamless end-to-end workflows.
“We are fulfilling our industry vision ‘to shape the future of the packaging world’ based on the pillars of connectivity, digitalisation, automation, and sustainability,” said Jean-Pascal Bobst, CEO, Bobst Group.
“Our solutions empower printers and converters to embrace digitalisation while advancing towards a more sustainable future. We are proud to engage with industry leaders, forge new partnerships, and chart a course towards continued innovation and progress.”
DIGITAL MASTER 55: A new end-to-end, all-in-one digital printing and converting platform for folding carton
The DIGITAL MASTER 55 is the new all-in-one digital printing and converting platform tailored for the folding carton industry, opening up new possibilities for short-to-mid-size runs, and drastically increasing opportunities with short lead times and high product quality.
Combining printing, embellishment, quality control, and die-cutting inline at 100 mpm (meters per minute), the DIGITAL MASTER 55 ensures the shortest time to market (even offering same-day delivery) and the best Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) among printing and converting solutions.
This all-in-one solution minimises the need for large stocks and inventories by enabling just-in-time production. This platform, which features full inline and automated printing adjustment capabilities and quality inspection, is ideal for runs up to 6,000 B1 equivalent sheets, where it can significantly reduce production time by up to 80% and reduce costs on short runs while eliminating waste logistics, and downtime required for traditional production processes.
Notably, the DIGITAL MASTER 55 boosts profitability in its application segments while allowing our clients new business opportunities.
Bobst Connect: Digitalisation and automation redefined
In the packaging sector, Bobst is taking connectivity and digitalisation to the next level by enabling a closed-loop workflow ecosystem from pdf to twin pdf to boost productivity, ease of use and contribute to sustainability.
New features of Bobst Connect—the constantly evolving, cloud-based digital platform that improves productivity—include a major update to equipment monitoring, which provides more detailed data insights than ever before. Performance management provides insights on equipment, shift and job performance, and energy consumption, optimising sustainability and cost.
For labels, the new cloud-based Bobst’s Digital Front End (DFE) 3.0 will be showcased for the first time to the public and commercially available later in the year.
It enables access to real-time data, resources and workflow templates anywhere, at any time. Colour management can be managed centrally and shared in the cloud, and its web-based interface supports multiple users across multiple sites.
BOBST is also launching a cloud-based certified substrate library in Bobst Connect, which allows converters to access up-to-date Bobst certified material lists to fast-track substrate calibration.
ACCUCHECK: Calibration and inspection improvements optimise productivity
Bobst has updated ACCUCHECK for its narrow-mid-web solutions, featuring major productivity improvements and new automation features.
Inspection improvements to ACCUCHECK include automatic quality inspection setup for every job and job queue synchronisation, ensuring zero setup time. This eliminates the bottleneck for quality control setup, meaning customers can inspect every job without extra time or effort. This feature is completely unique in the industry.
Calibration improvements include a new colour uniformity feature; the automated process for all colours now takes a fraction of the previous time, saving several hours. Meanwhile, the advanced colour-to-colour registration now performs complete calibration in just 15 minutes, while another new feature enhances automatic nozzle compensation to include deviated nozzles in addition to missing nozzles.
Thalia ink and Thalia Foldable ink: A new generation of UV digital inks
Thalia ink is a new generation of UV digital inks designed to meet the highest standards in ink compliance. They are TPO-free and compliant with major regulations, including REACH and EuPIA GMP. BOBST Thalia inks are without any CMRs (carcinogens, mutagens or reproductive toxins) and comply with the latest Swiss Ordinance announced in February 2024. Customers can be assured that these inks comply with current and upcoming regulations without compromising print quality. In addition, the new ink set has better resistance performance and improved colour gamut.
Specifically for the folding carton industry, the Thalia Foldable UV inks address the foldability challenge of high ink coverage or dark colour applications. Their special formulation maintains their post-curing elasticity even after an extended period of time, thus making them ideal for high-speed folding-gluing, small creasing lines, and sharp angles, which are typical of small boxes and thinner board applications—a growing trend to reduce cost and improve sustainability.
New MASTERCUT 165 PER: One solution for all applications
BOBST is launching a new version of its flagship flatbed die-cutter, the MASTERCUT 165 PER.
Thanks to its novel Dual Stream system, the machine is able to handle corrugated board and folding carton equally well and delivers perfect batches or pallets of blanks. A new carbon gripper bar enables an increased running speed of up to 7,500 sheets per hour, while in-line quality control with automatic waste ejection delivers zero-fault packaging.
Bobst MASTER RS 6003: Pantone stamp of approval
In flexible packaging, BOBST’s extended colour gamut (oneECG) technology used for gravure printing has been fully validated by Pantone. This means that the Bobst MASTER RS 6003 gravure printing solution can officially reproduce the Pantone library within a required level of accuracy – giving customers complete peace of mind.
Bobst’s strong offering through strategic partnerships
Bobst Connect is the cornerstone of our software journey. To reinforce its data and cloud-based software capabilities, Bobst is continuing to expand its successful collaboration with Microsoft. In an increasingly AI-driven environment, this collaboration provides the cloud-based infrastructure, expertise, and data security needed for Bobst to provide state-of-the-art software solutions to its customers.
Bobst recently entered a strategic partnership with Packitoo, a French company developing digital solutions in the packaging industry. Packitoo HIPE is a web-based sales tool that automates quotations, manages packaging projects, and supports web-to-pack e-shops for printers and converters. The partnership aligns with Bobst’s strategy to digitalise and connect the entire packaging value chain, from brand owners to converters and equipment suppliers.
