At the Specialty Films and Flexible Packaging seminar organized by the Elite Plus group in early September in Mumbai, Biku Kohli, managing director of SP Ultraflex, spoke to the audience and welcomed the theme of the conference – sustainable future, which has been the focal point of technological upgrades at SP Ultraflex in the recent past. The topic of Kohli’s presentation was – ‘dual turret slitter rewinders bring sustainable profitability to slitting operations.’ He spoke about the elements of sustainability such as conservation of energy and natural resources, quality management, waste control and socio-economic upliftment, and established how each element contributed to overall profitability, making sustainability and profitability two sides of the same coin. Finally, the presentation highlighted some key features of the SP Ultraflex’s Roboslit series dual turret slitter rewinders that support one or more elements of sustainability, making it an extremely popular and lucrative choice in converting operations.
Gains from sustainability
According to Kohli, each element of sustainability leads to profitability with reduced consumption of energy and natural resources, implies reduced costs while
improved quality leads to better price realization. By leading to a more committed
work force, socio-economic upliftment breeds efficiency and improves profitability, he said.
“Elements of sustainability can be built into machine design with conservation of energy and natural resources in mind. The key to reduced consumption is
fewer machines on the planet. This can be achieved by making machines more
productive so that fewer machines are required for a given output as well as making machines more versatile so that fewer machines are required for a given set
of applications,” Kohli said.
If the finished reels are rejected, all the resources used to produce them are
wasted. To make things worse, the disposal of the rejected material places a burden on the waste disposal system. If, on the other hand, the rejected material is
salvaged on a doctoring rewinding machine, more energy is spent without adding to the output. It is therefore necessary to equip slitter rewinders with features
that can guarantee the production of defect-free finished reels, he added.
The compensation of machine operators often depends on the output they are
able to deliver. By making machines easier to operate, one can make them more
productive and empower them to command higher compensation, thereby improving their standard of living. Safety features also reduce the risk of disability
or death and its disastrous consequences on society.
“With several intelligent features that take productivity, quality and user-friendliness to the next level, the Roboslit series is a quantum leap towards a sustainable and profitable future for the flexible packaging industry,” he said.
Latest trends in flexible packaging
According to Kohli, the industry has become more aware regarding enviro-quality management systems and decision makers are consciously taking steps to
adhere to the principles of sustainable profitability. Well-informed convertors nolonger restrict themselves only to price while selecting machinery. Instead, the
focus is on quality, durability and after sales support even at a slightly higher
price because the payback in the long run is more.
“It is also important to note,” Kohli said, “that slitting and web inspection machines are no longer considered as supporting machinery to the printing line.
Defect-free slitter output at high speed ensures that there are no bottlenecks in
the downstream packing machines at the customer’s end. This is most important in order for a converting company to position itself as a preferred supplier
with brand owners.”
Roboslit makes greater inroads in the market
The year 2018 has seen the launch of the fully loaded version of Roboslit dual
turret slitter rewinder – the Roboslit plus – at Plastindia where the machine ran
at a speed of 1000 meters a minute. With over 22 installations of the Roboslit
machine in India and overseas in the past four years, SP gained the impetus to
launch the fully loaded Roboslit plus complete with a host of value-added features like laser-aided job set-up, servo-driven lay-on, Intelligent Tension Management system, static charge management system, one touch machine to pallet
displacement system for fi nished reels handling, safety features and CCTV to
monitor critical areas of the machine from a single point.
The company is presently working on several fronts, both with respect to new
models and developments on existing machines. When Packaging South Asia
asked for details, Kohli shared two such areas of development:
Responding to the trend of brand owners specifying larger and heavier rewind
reels as output from slitter rewinder, SP Ultrafl ex will soon be standardizing a
new model capable of producing and handling such reels.
With the advent of dual turret slitter rewinders and consequent increase in productivity, the bottleneck has shifted to handling and packing the fi nished reels
and so have SP’s design efforts. The company will soon be extending the material
handling options on its machines to better interface with the reel handling and
packing facilities of the customer with a view to streamline these activities
