As DRUPA came to an end on Friday afternoon Greg Bird, Kobus UK managing director, said: “’Wow, we have had a fantastic show! It proved to be a brilliant opportunity to connect with print and packaging customers old and new. Drupa is a forum enabling customers to truly appreciate our innovations, and suppliers to understand our customer’s needs both now and in the future. On our stand in Hall 1 we presented the new look Kolbus with our strong emphasis on packaging solutions for all products from luxury packaging to corrugated boxmaking. Added to our traditional casemaking expertise we showcased Kolbus engineering at its best. Visitors were particularly impressed by our live demonstrations of the BX Motion Pro boxmaker, RD115S Rotary Die Cutter and BLW200 Boxline Wrapper.”
At close of play on Friday orders had been placed for a complete Kolbus Boxline, a four colour RD115S, two Autobox BX Motion Pro’s and a Kolbus DA370 casemaker. But most importantly many strong projects were discussed which should be confirmed by firm orders in the next few weeks.
It was the live demonstration of the BLW200 Boxline Wrapper which convinced a Spanish visitor to confirm an order. He was shown the fully automatic laminating machine producing packaging, lids, and boxes by forming plates. It laminated four-sided panel blanks non-stop, without forming tools, at 40 cycles per minute.
The BX Motion Pro attracted huge interest. Shown producing short-run corrugated boxes in single, double, and triple flute, with a set up time of less than a minute it proved the ease with which unique production requirements could be met. The fact that the machine chopped all waste to make collection simple and less bulky was the clincher for one Spanish customer who placed an order on the spot.
Greg Bird concluded: “Drupa is an essential meeting place for print and packaging businesses to communicate, understand, develop, and progress. Aside from the benefits to business, it was also a wonderful opportunity to make new friends and to re-unite with old ones and recall what a great business this is and will continue to be.”
