FOLDING CARTON INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

See what FCI magazine had to say about the new Rotobraille...

INCREASING LEVELS OF PACKAGING LEGISLATION EMANATING FROM THE EU IN BRUSSELS IS ABOUT TO PROVE A MAJOR BENEFIT TO ONE UK COMPANY. NICK COOMBES REPORTS ON A NEW APPROACH TO SECURITY EMBOSSING.

With requirements for Braille embossing on pharmaceutical cartons becoming more stringent, one Yorkshire based company, CAVA UK Ltd, set about designing a unit that could be fitted to any make of folder gluer. The 'RotoBraille' system, as it has become known, was developed from concept to series production in just under two years, and was star of the show at an Open House expo held at CAVA's showroom in November, where working demonstrations took place on a Signature folder gluer.

Introducing the RotoBraille system, CAVA Managing Director, Clive Robshaw explained: "We had been under pressure from a number of our carton converting customers to come up with a cost effective solution to meet the new EU requirements. Other systems either involve attachments to the die cutter, which complicates matters and generally compromises productivity, or are bespoke to one make of folder gluer. RotoBraille had to be universal in its application and offer maximum controllability."

SIMPLE TO INSTALL
This new rotary embossing system, which is manufactured for CAVA UK by Ace Machinery in South Korea, is claimed to provide unmatched performance, both in terms of its flexibility, accuracy, and importantly, speed. Simple to install, both as an OEM or a retro fit on folder gluers from 70-145cm, RotoBraille uses touchscreen control of servo motors to position the embossing plates accurately across the carton blank. It can apply Braille embossing on one to four panels, as required, and precisely controls the dot height at full folder gluer speed. Seen as a cost effective alternative to wholesale investment in new converting equipment, the RotoBraille has already attracted interest from leading international packaging groups and their pharmaceutical customers who could face huge a investment programmes to comply with the new legislation. According to Mr Robshaw: "One leading drug company estimates that a complete re equip of its tooling for its packaging suppliers could cost up to £11m based on existing equipment!"

Already the subject of rigorous testing by a number of leading carton houses, the fitting of a RotoBraille unit offers minimal disruption to existing production lines. CAVAUK offers an optional premake ready table to enable offline preparation of the embossing cassettes, and are reduction of down time between jobs. Installation is straight forward, and according to CAVA UK technicians, training on the unit could not be simpler. The touchscreen control panel has been designed with world markets in mind. Internationally recognised symbols replace text to make programming and adjustment easy, while safety is assured by an electronic guard upto CE specification.

More than 20 companies attended the OpenHouse. They came from as far a field as Egypt, India, America, Portugal, France and Italy, though it was to a UK plant that the first RotoBraille unit was sold. The Chesapeake Corporation will install a RotoBraille unit at its facility in Leicester. "We are innegotiations with all the bluechip packaging producers who see the unit as the best means of complying with their customers 'new requirements while still offering them competitive prices — it's an unusual combination, "added MrRobshaw. CAVA UK expects to sell between 6 and 10 units per year in the UK and Ireland, but it sees the international markets, where it has exclusive sales rights, as having the major volume potential. According to Mr Robshaw, RotoBraille has no direct competition. “Our brief was multi panel capability, measurable dot quality, no compromise on machine speed, easy and quick makeready, and compatibility with 80 per cent of folder gluers. We have met all the criteria and brought a proven product to the market.” Rotary embossing is far superior to flat bed for this type of work because it alleviates several inherent problems caused by the flat bed method where there are always vibration and bed level issues. With a rotary application, mechanical simplicity makes the process more repeatable and therefore accurate, and since the carton is not under tension, the simple embossing process is easier to control.

EASY ADJUSTMENT
The employment of servo drive is largely responsible for the easy adjustment and accuracy of RotoBraille. Each rotation is broken into 1000s of pulses which are constantly monitored by the control unit. Every carton that passes through is registered, its gap calculated and adjusted for, and all with the folder gluer running at 1000m/min. “I often ask converters whether they sell metres of board or carton blanks,” said Mr Robshaw cheekily. He explained: “By having accurate gap adjustment to 5mm we can show a significant increase in output. Taking a 152mm carton and a machine speed of 200m/min, a 5mm gap would yield 76,453 cartons/hour. Compare this with a 50mm gap or even a 100mm gap, which is not uncommon, and the figures drop to 59,400 and 47,619 cartons respectively.” At present, the EU legislation relates to the pharmaceutical industry, but there is a likelihood that it will be extended to food packaging. “Now that would be a challenge,” Mr Robshaw added, commenting that other applications include anticounterfeit measures for high value products such as perfume, pattern embossing (texturing or logos) and security codes on flaps. There is also potential for high speed RFID tag application.

Reproduced courtesy of FCI