A full upgrade of slitting and rewinding operations at Amcor Flexibles in Melbourne is almost complete. Bobst Group was contracted for the comprehensive three year upgrade programme and has installed several high performance Titan slitter rewinders.
Higher running speeds, dramatically reduced job change-over times and fully automated slit reel handling systems will ensure substantial improvements in productivity for the Amcor plant.
The extensive range of slitting and rewinding equipment supplied includes three Titan SR7 and two Titan SR8 cantilever machines, the latter becoming the most successful model in the Titan portfolio since its launch at Drupa in May 2004.
One of the Titan SR8 machines commissioned at Amcor Flexibles last year, has an unusual specification incorporating an embossing station for both aluminium foil and paper laminates and running at speeds in excess of 400m/min.
The final two machines to be commissioned during January 2006 include the new Titan CT610 automatic turret slitter rewinder and a full width inspection rewinder. The CT610 is a high speed, high volume slitter rewinder providing automatic cut-off and taping, automatic knife positioning and a fully automated slit reel unloading and handling system - which will be fully integrated into Amcor’s existing end-of-line reel packaging operations.
The major benefit of the Titan CT610 is the minimal machine downtime between finished reel sets, which is consistently less than 20 seconds, enabling very high slitting volumes and overall machine productivity – this single machine will process higher volumes than the three older slitters it is replacing.
The full width inspection rewinder will be used to detect (and remove) any printing or laminating faults in the parent reels prior to slitting on the Titan CT610 machine, which will avoid machine stoppages and maximise productivity.
The delivery of these two final machines will complete the upgrading of the entire converting operations at Amcor Flexibles, one of the group’s largest flexible converting plants in Australia, producing a wide range of flexible packaging products including printed and unprinted mono and multi-layer plastic films, laminations and converted products for consumer and industrial packaging applications.
Amcor Australasia is the most diverse of the group’s business units, supplying a broad range of packaging across the complete Amcor product line, including corrugated and folding carton; steel and aluminium food and beverage cans; flexible packaging; PET plastic jars and bottles; plastic and metal closures; glass wine bottles; multi-wall sacks, paper, cartonboard and paper recycling.
Flexible packaging solutions provided by Amcor include flexible and film packaging for the food, beverage and pharmaceutical sectors, including confectionery, coffee, fresh food and dairy food packaging. With rapid expansion in recent years through aggressive acquisitions, Amcor has become a clear leader in the global packaging industry – 24 per cent of its global product mix is now attributable to flexibles.
More than 60 Titan SR8 machines have now been installed worldwide in the last 18 months.
