During the last almost one year, since the first Open House in May-June 2015, Mumbai-based SP Ultraflex has achieved tremendous success with its latest product – Roboslit dual turret slitter-rewinder. At the Open House customers took production runs on the slitter-rewinder using various substrates in different slit widths and diameters. Productivity of 1.6 to 2.5 times that of a conventional duplex slitter-rewinder was reason enough for three customers, all leaders in their respective fields, to place orders at the Open House. The ma–
chines have since been installed at the respective plants of Shrinath Rotopack, Hyderabad, a leading manufacturer of flexible packaging material, Parakh Agro Industries based at Pune that deals with specialty films for food and non-food consumer products and Renewsys India, Bengaluru, a specialty film manufacturer focussing on renewable energy generation
“The last few months have seen several Roboslit installations across the length and breadth of the country. As always, it is a rewarding experience to see projections and estimates being substantiated on the floor, one after the other at the plants of leading flexible packaging companies. With confidence replacing the initial scepticism, more and more customers are investing in dual turret technology as a means of achieving sustained growth without a corresponding increase in outlay in terms of manpower, space and utilities,” said Biku Kohli, director of SP Ultraflex.
The company launched Roboslit in 2014 and installed its first machine at GLS Industries, Gurgaon in late 2014. The Roboslit has a capacity to handle unwind reels having diameters of up to 1,000 mm and web-widths of up to 1,300 mm. It is possible to produce rewind reels with diameters of up to 600 mm at speeds of up to 700 mm.
Positive customer reaction
Customers have reacted positively to the machine and a few have even gone in for repeat orders. “We took a well-informed decision to add SP’s Roboslit OHP slitter-rewinder to our production line. Within the span of a few days which it took for the crew to find their rhythm with the sequential operation of the machine, we were able to run the machine regularly at up to 750 metres a minute, consistently achieving forecasted production levels. After having observed the performance over a period of two months, we recently placed an order for one more Roboslit machine for our facility,” said Manish Rathi, director of Shrinath Rotopack.
Parakh Agro which has recently commissioned one Roboslit machine also has good feedback about the machine. “We have been using machines from SP Ultraflex since long and when we heard about the Open House showcasing Roboslit last year, we were curious to know about the dual turret technology available at our doorstep. Hence we took production trials with various substrates on the machine to judge its performance. Post our due diligence and after evaluating the price-benefit ratio of various options, we ordered one Roboslit RL machine which was recently commissioned at our plant. We are particularly happy with the flush reels that we are able to achieve due to the distinctive horizontal layons on the dual turret rewinds. We are also very pleased with the sales and service support of SP Ultraflex and happy to have our third machine from SP,” said Vinay Nalawade, director, packaging business of Parakh Agro Industries.
More order flow
With the Roboslit brand now established in the market and the benefit of dual turret technology well known, order flows continue, both new and repeat. Among the orders under process, three are for customers based in South India, three for customers in North India and one machine which will be installed in West India. Of these, two machines are repeat orders – one by GLS Industries in Gurgaon and one by Shrinath Laminators in Hyderabad, both within a short period of the first Roboslit installation.
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