On 23 April BOBST awarded one of its employees a prestigious award in recognition of a groundbreaking invention that he pioneered within the company. Nick Copeland, director of R&D at Bobst Manchester, is the recipient of the first ever BOBST Inventor Award for his work on the AluBond patent, which was granted in the UK in 2019.
AluBond is recognized as a breakthrough, providing high metal adhesion and surface energy levels through vacuum metallization.
“After a thorough selection process, the decision committee agreed that Nick is a fully deserving first recipient of this award, as his work on this patent has led to significant benefits, both for BOBST and our customers,” said Alexandre Pauchard, Head of Group R&D at BOBST. “AluBond is a truly outstanding invention that overcomes a relatively frequent issue for our customers, namely poor metal adhesion due to de-lamination. The positive feedback we have heard from customers is a testament to the impact that Nick has made.”
The BOBST Inventor Award will be awarded on an annual basis to the inventor(s) within the company – who may be at any stage of their career – whose patented work is deemed to have had the greatest positive impact for both the company and for customers.
“I am honored to have been given the inaugural Inventor Award,” said Copeland. “It is great to work at a company that encourages and supports new ideas, allowing innovation to thrive. I want to thank all of my colleagues who were involved in the AluBond® patent. I hope together we can contribute many more innovations at BOBST, providing meaningful benefits for our customers’ businesses.”
The AluBond process is an in-line hybrid coating technology that promotes chemical anchoring of the first aluminum particles creating a metalizing seeding layer that provides superior bond strength properties. It has been shown to greatly increase metal bond strength and metal adhesion on the most commonly used substrates (PET, BOPP, CPP, and PE) during aluminum vacuum metallization.
