Bobst hosts Polish flexible packaging industry

During the conference, which was held in the Osada Karbówko in Elgiszewo, a number of technically-oriented presentations were delivered illustrating developments that are driving innovation throughout the supply chain, as well as an overview of the investment and financing opportunities available to Polish packaging companies.

In addition to Bobst experts, speakers included partner suppliers Atlas Converting, Coim, Daetwyler SwissTech and Lemo Maschinenbau, as well as a testimonial from Witold Karbowski, owner of PAK Toruń, which hosted a flexo press demonstration on its 10-color F&K 20SIX on the second day – the first ever F&K 20SIX Open House held at a customer’s production plant.

Witold Młynarczyk, zone business director for Central Europe and CIS within Bobst’s web-fed business unit, said: ‘We had a very good response to the event. Attendance was high, with around 100 guests, and the feedback we received after the conference and Open House was excellent. It confirmed that the event formula really hit the mark with the local industry.

‘The conference was structured as a technical update on the latest technologies and developments across the packaging value chain and processes, including gravure and flexo printing technologies, lamination, coating, vacuum metallizing, slitting rewinding and bag making.

‘It was also focused on other important aspects of business that are very topical for participants. For instance we invited leading consulting firms Infosystems and ISP to speak about financing and the European subvention system for Poland.’

PAK Toruń purchased its 10-colour Bobst F&K 20SIX flexo printing press in 2012 in order to increase its flexo printing capacity to support its expanding customer base.

The core business of PAK Toruń is the production of flexo printed flexible packaging materials –mainly for the food packaging industry and notably in the bakery products, fish, dairy and confectionery segments. The packaging it produces includes high barrier films, films for thermoforming and bags for various food applications, as well as labels and wrapping papers.

 ‘The purchase of a machine of this class was a strategic choice for us,’ said Karbowski. ‘We know today that we made the right decision. We extended and strengthened our position in the high-end packaging market segment which requires the highest and most stringent printing quality standards.’

The demonstration at PAK Torun highlighted all the notable features of the press, which were shown and explained to the guests throughout the print run by Carsten Steimel, project manager at Bobst Bielefeld. The flexo printing demonstration included the printing of two jobs which included the use of the insetter function for applying varnish in register to a pre-printed web. Job changeover was then performed using the smartGPSTM system that the PAK Toruń F&K 20SIX press is equipped with.