Bobst India, a leading supplier of substrate processing, printing and converting equipment and services for the label, flexible packaging, folding carton and corrugated industries, promoted its range of India-built FFG (flexo-folder-gluer) machines at IndiaCorr Expo in Greater Noida this September.
Bobst started manufacturing the complete FFG machines in India in 2025. The company had unveiled the complete line of India-built Bobst NOVAFFG in an open house in Pune in May this year, which Packaging South Asia has written about.
“The NOVAFFG is an ideal machine for mid-segment corrugated board players who have reached a threshold of 1,000 mt per month of corrugated board conversion, or even for customers who have challenges in supplying perfect folding with excellent slotting quality and meeting JIT (just-in-time) deliveries. It’s a machine that is easy to operate, maintain, and operator-friendly in terms of both settings and operation,” Venugopal Menon, zone business director – Indian subcontinent for printing and converting, folding carton and corrugated board, told Packaging South Asia at the show held from 11-13 September at India Expo Mart (IEML), Delhi-NCR.
Bobst’s NOVAFFG lines have been a huge success with Indian customers. Five machines have already been sold, of which three have been installed, the fourth one is under installation, and the fifth will be delivered early next year.
The first FFG machine went to B&B Triplewall in Karnataka, the second to Vandana Packaging in Meerut, and the third one to Best Corrugators in Mysuru. The fourth is under installation at Mukund Corrupack in Hyderabad.
Bobst Business Unit Service and Performance also promoted its new upgrade for the doctor blade chamber. The traditional doctor blade chamber is made of steel, but at the show, the company promoted a new upgrade, and it is made of carbon fiber, Menon said. According to him, a carbon fiber doctor blade chamber is lighter, easier to handle and maintain, and has a longer life.
Bobst’s vision
At drupa 2024, Bobst had announced its vision for the future of the packaging world — whose foundation is based on the four pillars of automation, connectivity, digitalization, and sustainability, Menon said.
“At IndiaCorr Expo, the company demonstrated how Bobst Connect on machines such as FFG 820/924 can help customers get essential production data such as reasons for stoppages, total production by shift, changeover times, the machine’s OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) and the provision of the machine getting connected to the customer’s ERP (enterprise resource planning) system.”
Bobst offers Helpline Essential on its machines. This enables a machine to be troubleshooted via remote assistance. Many a time, a machine can be put back to operation without the engineer visiting the site, thus offering better uptime for the customer, he explained.
Bobst Connect is offered on all Bobst FFG and DRO (flexo printing & rotary die-cutters) machines, such as the 820, 924, and 1228, rolled out from its plant in Lyon, France. Quite a few customers in India, such as Meghdoot, East India, Girnar, Nithya, Panoply, and Mukund, have adopted both the Bobst Connect and Helpline.
Indian corrugation industry
Menon said the corrugation industry has evolved in the past decade. “I am using ‘evolved’ in the sense that people have adopted automation, shifting from offline to inline operation and adopting modern technology for board making and converting.” The main reasons have been a shift in the end users moving to case erecting lines, which require perfectly folded boxes, JIT deliveries, boxes with better strength, reduced dependence on labor, and the need to produce more SKUs in the shortest possible time, he said.
A few consolidations are happening in the corrugation industry, such as JK Paper’s and Oji Paper’s acquisitions, Menon said, adding that going forward, more mergers and acquisitions are likely.
IndiaCorr Expo, in conjunction with the Indian Corrugated Case Manufacturers Association (ICCMA), is one of the main shows for the corrugated board industry, he said. “Bobst has always been part of the expo since its inception. We have seen a reduction in footfall in recent years. However, the major corrugated players and ICCMA members did visit the show. This year we saw fewer corrugated players from the West and the South compared to earlier shows,” he concluded.
This article has been amended on 6/10/2025 to correct a factual error on “JK Paper’s and Oji Paper’s” acquisitions, in the second last para. The previously published sentence read as “JK Paper’s acquisition of Oji Paper,” which is incorrect. The error is regretted.
