“We faced the challenge and won!” states Massimo Grandi, Area Manager of KPL Packaging, in presenting the new Casmatic T100 roll wrapper at the Tissue World Miami show in Florida, USA. “We have attained all our objectives… except one: the Casmatic T100 can’t make a good espresso coffee!” continues Grandi, making the audience partake in the general climate of enthusiasm that you can breathe today at KPL Packaging.
Manuel Bolzoni
Making its début in October 2005 at the Open House held at the Fabio Perini SpA facilities in Lucca, Italy, the Casmatic T100 is born to satisfy a market segment that was up until today not covered: that of kitchen towel and toilet roll wrappers for medium-size production capacities with quick format change. Presently, the technological panorama includes only high production machinery, endowed with integrated quick format change systems, while medium and small-size production systems are faced with a substantial technological gap in this sense. This situation necessarily forces producers to either accept this gap or to orient their needs towards higher performing and more expensive systems. Both of these solutions penalize the smaller companies of the sector which, orienting themselves as they often do towards the first solution, forcibly renounce a good chance for an upgrade.
THE CASMATIC T100 REPRESENTS A BETTER ALTERNATIVE FOR SMALLER COMPANIES, but also for the large groups who require modern and flexible machines for their references with production of up to 100 packs per minute. The need for a machine such as the Casmatic T100 is born from precise customer inputs. Chief among these the need for flexibility.
Through the introduction of the quick format change for medium or medium/high production requirements, producers acquire greater reactivity to market requests and, in parallel, obtain greater efficiency in warehouse and production management. The Casmatic T100 can also be placed together with high-production wrappers as a support or back-up unit, since it is able to wrap a wide range of formats and package lay-outs in single or double layers.
THE CHALLENGE THAT KPL PACKAGING ANNOUNCES TO HAVE WON IS PARTIALLY A COMMERCIAL CHALLENGE AND PARTIALLY A TECHNOLOGICAL ONE. The Casmatic T100 is not an economical or a lesser version of an existing project, but rather a whole new machine, based on a new wrapping concept. The strongest design effort was placed in the wrapping unit – the heart of every packaging machine. Instead of focussing on how to automatize format change at this point – as already done on high-speed machines existing on the market – the designers at KPL Packaging have revolutionized the entire device, creating an innovative system called “tumbler”, which represents an absolute novelty in the realm of tissue. The tumbler works differently with respect to the traditional operational logic adopted up until now. It is comprised of a rotating unit, composed by a pair of conveyor belts (upper and lower) that caters to the formation of the first wrapping tube with a 180° rotation of the product and film. This solution eliminates the need to use an elevator and the overhead flights system typical of the reciprocating wrapping cycle, and with these, all relative servo-assisted format change devices. Therefore, we can state that the tumbler has been expressly designed to satisfy format change needs right from the beginning, and to fulfill the need for diversified productions. This approach is radically different from the automation of existing devices.
THE RESULT OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CASMATIC T100 IS THEREFORE A MACHINE THAT EMBODIES SOME PREROGATIVES that up until now were reserved for high segment systems, such as for example the high flexibility and high level of personalization.
The Casmatic T100 can install optionals such as the handle applicator integrated in the machine, the perforator, etc., just like the machines in the top range field. And all this without penalizing the qualitative aspects that remain a fundamental point in the KPL Packaging offer: quality of the pack and wrapping style are the same as those of the machine’s “big sisters”. One of the key words in the development of the new machine was “accessibility”, an important factor linked to, but not exclusive of, maintenance.
The Casmatic T100 has an “open machine heart”, that is, an innovative lay-out designed exclusively to facilitate access to the machine’s internal components while at the same time guaranteeing swiftness in daily operation and in general maintenance activities.
“The Casmatic T100 is not in competition with other KPL Packaging systems,” explains Dr. Fabio Gurioli, marketing manager at KPL Packaging “and at the moment there are no alternatives from our competitors for machines in its range.” This specification stems from the fact that the Casmatic T100 is born expressly to cover a technological void that has been created due to the evolution of consumer habits and consequently those of retailers. The immediate advantage for customers is an economic, compact machine that, thanks to reduced format change times, allows high production efficiency with consequent cost optimization. Time-to-market is reduced and customers’ global competitiveness in their reference markets is enhanced.
“WE LOOK AT THE TISSUE MARKET NOT AS SPECTATORS, BUT RATHER AS PARTNERS, attentive to requests of producers and packaging machine utilizers”, adds Dr. Gurioli, “and it is on this culture that we set the bases for reciprocal success. The Casmatic T100 is the ideal embodiment of this way of working.” As for performance, the Casmatic T100 is a machine for medium or medium/high productions, with a maximum production speed of 100 packs/min on single-layer packs, and 70 packs/min on double-layer packs. At trials, the Casmatic T100 keeps faith to expectations, making the optimism that reigns at KPL Packaging more than legitimate.
Just one thing…for a good espresso coffee we’ll have to wait for an upgrade! •