‘Sustainable and Bio-degradable’ for Rotomec

Rotomec’s recent Open House focused on rotogravure printing and laminating machines’ energy efficiency and waste reducing performance when processing substrates derived from renewable sources for producing biodegradable compostable flexible packaging.  Attended by 170 visitors from 21 countries, the three days of demonstrations were carried out on a RS 4003MP HS gravure press and a CL 850 laminator.
 
The need for bio-degradable materials in the flexible packaging industry is a hot topic.  Producers of films, inks, adhesives and resins are actively involved in research on new materials from renewable sources that are compostable and therefore have limited environmental impact.  However, the physical properties of raw materials derived from various vegetable resources are different from those of conventional films, and this has a bearing on their processability, which is of primary importance to a converter’s operations.
 
For Rotomec, this means optimizing the use and recovery of electrical and thermal power, two main areas where efficient technology reduces consumption.  Visitors were shown this by the data displayed on screen for the gravure press and the laminator, highlighting the reduced exhaust air volume and excellent solvent concentration level, as well as reduced thermal and electrical power consumption.
 
The RS 4003MP HS gravure press printed a job on 20-micron bio-degradable cellulose-based NatureFlex NK transparent film by Innovia, with Flint Group inks.  Low waste levels combined with cost savings are even more important when producing compostable packaging, and the RS 4003MP HS highlighted developments that reduce consumption of consumables - from the TAPS system, to the printing trolley design and inking system, to the high efficiency dryers.
 
TAPS (Total-Automatic-Pre-register-Setting), which is controlled from the main console means that it takes only 4 to 5 minutes to complete the pre-register procedure on all printing units for a job, which wastes less than 100m of substrate.

The RS 4003MP HS, whichis rated at 500 m/min, ran the demo at 300 m/min despite the special properties of the biodegradable substrate, and included an automatic splice at maximum press speed.
 
The laminating demonstration of two Innovia NaturFlex compostable films - a lacquered transparent film and a lacquered metalized film - using Dow Adcotecompostable solvent-based adhesive with Flexapurtechnology, was run on a CL 850 D duplex laminator equipped with Rotomec flexo coating system trolley.
 
With biodegradable adhesive being a new application, Rotomec carried out tests using different coating technologies to find the best solution for using the lowest quantity of adhesive while obtaining the best optical results for the laminated structure.  Applying a lower quantity of adhesive also provides an important cost advantage in terms of reduced consumption.
 
The efficiency of the drying system is very important too.  The CL 850 drying system has optimized temperature distribution across the full web width, which minimizes residual solvent and risk of curling.  It ran at 300 m/min during the demo, but has a 450 m/min capability when handing conventional substrates.  The demonstration ended with an automatic splice on the rewinder.
 
Visitors to the Open House also saw the SL 1000 solventless laminator.  This high performance machine, with production speed up to 600 m/min, will be installed in Germany, where it will work with high barrier laminates.