Mex, Switzerland - Over 80 visitors from around the world attended this year’s Bobst Manchester Open House held at its Competence Centre on 18^th October 2016. 

The event saw the world premiere of the NEW BOBST K5 Expert, the highest productivity metallizer in the world.

The BOBST K5 Expert, the next generation of the successful K5000 metallizer, can run at speeds up to 1200m/min, is available in widths from 2450mm to 3650mm and can house increased roll diameters of up to 1270mm to meet new industry trends for improved productivity.

Once again BOBST is setting new standards in vacuum metallization for the packaging industry; the K5 EXPERT houses the largest coating drum in the industry at 700mm which improves collection efficiency by 16%; this means less aluminium consumption and increased boat life resulting in maximum productivity. 

The K5 EXPERT features design innovations throughout the machine including a totally redesigned evaporation source providing the widest coating window in the market, up to 50% wider than some competitor machines which translates in better coating uniformity and collection efficiency, minimising aluminium wire waste.   

A more intuitive HMI screen and software interface make the machine easy to operate. The new design of the machine allows the operator to operate everything from the front of the machine and to be positioned much closer to view the evaporation source and metallization process through the strobe window; the new boat power controls are extremely easy to operate and are located in front of each boat, 

Another brand new feature, unique in the industry is the Automatic Sequential Control (ASC) system which speeds up start-up of the machine with minimum operator involvement required, making the K5 EXPERT easy to operate. 

In addition to the well-known BOBST Winding Mechanism based on “true tension” control, the new model incorporates low friction Ferrofluidic seals for an even better tension control on the rewind; all-in-all producing a virtually wrinkle-free roll-to-roll vacuum metallization process.

The K5 EXPERT has been designed with reliability, serviceability and robustness in mind and as such has a host of new features to give our customers total peace of mind, maximum machine uptime and product quality consistency.

It also has a variety of energy saving and waste reduction features including ECO mode which reduces energy consumption by up to 50% during stand-by and Film Save mode which has a synchronised faster shutter action (opening in just 5 seconds) and aluminium wire ramp up to minimise the amount of un-metallized film (waste) to less than 400m per roll.

As an option, the High Deposition (HD) source has an improved design for higher speed of operation for those metallization jobs that require a high deposition rate of up to 4.0 OD.

The new machine provides significant cost saving innovations to reduce energy consumption, consumables usage and film waste which results in the lowest production costs available in the market. In addition, faster venting and pump down times results in a reduced production cycle which increases the number of batches/rolls per day.

The Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of the K5 Expert is reduced by 25% compared to other metallizers available in the market.