Bobst Open House Highlights Mid-Range Advances

New technology is making mid-range platen diecutting more economical and do-it-yourself blank manufacturing an affordable and profitable option for converters, according to the Bobst Group. The company demonstrated this at an open house held April 27-29 at Bobst’s Roseland, N.J., technology center.

The themed purpose of the open house was to introduce the SPanthera 106-LER, a mid-range diecutter with fully integrated blanking. The new machine can run at 9000 sheets per hour, optically registers sheets in its feed section, and is operated in blank separation mode or unseparated sheet mode.

Another advancement featured at the Bobst Open House was a new manufacturing system for blanking tools. Trademarked under the name “Angle Lock,” this combination of equipment and software helps bring the cost of making a blanking tool down from thousands to hundreds, making blanking justifiable even for runs as small as 5000 sheets, according to Alex Gigon, director of customer service and support operations for the Bobst Group.

“Angle Lock is a complete system, not just a single tool,” states Gigon. “From the integrated Tool-Designer software to the reusable tooling components, Angle Lock is designed to contribute to quick tool fabrication and fast set-up. It allows converters to design and fabricate complex single or double knife blanking tools in hours, rather than waiting days for tools to be made by an outside tool and die maker.”

John Dickison, Bobst technical product specialist, adds that 85 to 90 percent of the components can be re-used, further enhancing the economy of blanking. The plywood and grid are the only components dedicated to the job. With the Tool-Designer blanking tool design software, users can build blanking tools using existing die files created by any CAD software. Dickison says this eliminates the time required to create the tool geometry from scratch and reduces the chance for errors during transcription of dimensions.

For more information, contact John Dickison at 888-226-8800, ext. 5205.OBM