Oben Group First in the Americas to Invest in BOBST iMA

Oben Group are always at the forefront of new developments and back in 2021 were the first in Latin America to produce BOPP film using the unique BOBST AluBond® process. With this new machine, which will once again include AluBond®, the company is investing in another innovative BOBST development with the purchase of BOBST iMA. The new machine which will be used for the production of metallized BOPP is a first as it will also have a 1.5 metre roll diameter, the largest BOBST has ever produced for a film metallizer. The larger diameter means the machine can run for longer without stopping, reducing interruptions to production.

BOBST iMA which was launched at drupa last year is a major breakthrough in machine integrated process expertise and is unique in the vacuum metallizing industry. It is an innovative vision system which allows the operator to view the evaporator boats on dedicated screens mounted on the metallizer chamber. With software powered by AI, mapping and controlling the size of the aluminium pool which is usually done by a highly skilled operator is done automatically. Doing this process manually is especially difficult on wide web machines, BOBST iMA supports the operator by automatically selecting the required settings for different metallizing processes, giving a faster, smoother changeover time and reducing waste and consumable usage. Working in conjunction with BOBST Connect, BOBST engineers can remotely view the evaporator boats and wire position in case of any issues, reducing machine downtime and costly site visits.

Erik Sosa, Technical Director, Oben Group said “We have been very happy with our previous machines from BOBST; when we needed to invest in another metallizer to further increase our capacity, BOBST was our first choice. BOBST are innovators in the industry and we are looking forward to the machine being installed and to seeing how BOBST iMA can help to further improve our production efficiency”.

Oben Group produces polypropylene, polyester and nylon films used for flexible packaging; coatings for the graphic industry and thermoformed polypropylene products. They opened their first manufacturing plant more than 32 years ago in Ecuador. Today, they have 17 manufacturing plants, 8 distribution centers and sales offices in 11 countries across the Americas and Europe.
 

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