BOBST Digital Master 340 all-in-one hybrid label press in the new Competence Center.

Floods are terrible things. Water, mud (and other unmentionables) appearing where they shouldn't and causing disruption and havoc. So it is good to see some positives emerging from the mayhem. Last October, the beautiful medieval city of Florence suffered one, the river overflowing and flooding a large expanse of the city—including the factory and demo center of BOBST’s narrow and wide web business that suffered under a meter or more of sticky, glutinous mud. Thirty-five presses were destroyed, including several due for dispatch to customers.

Fortunately, the company had agreed a new facility close by that was not impacted and the rescue mission immediately kicked in, with no orders lost. Fast forward a year later and BOBST welcomed over 200 customers and prospects to their new 1,200 square meter Competence Center, showing off six of their label, flexible packaging, and carton presses.

The narrow/mid web sector is one of the fastest growing across BOBST's extensive portfolio, sales in 2024 will hit “€105–110 million,” according to Matteo Cardinotti, Head of Narrow Mid-Web Printing & Converting Product at BOBST. “And about half of that will be of digital presses, either standalone or all-in-one models.” So far they have supplied 10 inkjet machines into North America, with a healthy pipeline going forward. 

The event showcased slick automatic flexo changeovers, sophisticated single-pass production of multi-layer peel and reveal labels, and automatic changeover of a digital hybrid job with die swapping and a flexo varnish. So what, you may say, but they did something I had never seen before in a digital print demo: the press operator got a pen out and drew a line on the labels to simulate a print defect (my advice is don't try that at home, unless you have that latest BOBST Accucheck system). The mark was captured by the high-res camera and details made available in a production report that included images of affected labels. This information could be passed to a rewinder to cut out the affected section and rewound, to aid manual removal or to inform the customer of the potential fault ahead of a delivery and check the required action with them. This is a powerful message about the use of inspection to provide production data that can be used to improve performance, as well as automating calibrations to ensure consistent results and simplify the machine operation. These capabilities demonstrate how narrow web production is changing, toward automation and lights out manufacture.

The old facility has been restored into a larger production facility featuring 25 production bays where presses are assembled and tested prior to delivery, with further space in the new building to accommodate additional demand. The business is growing rapidly, up from €35 million in 2021 to over €105 million this year. BOBST has built a very impressive narrow/mid web portfolio for labels, flexible packaging, and cartons. Their impressive technology partnered with slick workflow and wider digitization shows why.