Desmedt reports 30% improvement in output after investment in customized Martin Automatic roll change equipment

Martin Automatic MBSF units were installed on two flexo presses last year to improve productivity and reduce waste, and Henri Köhler, Desmedt Labels general manager, has now confirmed this impact. ‘The Martin Automatic MBSF splicers have given us 25-30 percent more output on our different narrow web flexo lines, and I am prepared to state that we should not consider installing another press without Martin automation.’

The twin Martin Automatic machines at the family-owned converter, based in Bornem between Antwerp and Brussels, include several customized options. In a typical Martin Automatic butt splicer configuration, the festoon (accumulator) that supplies the web to the press during the splice cycle, is mounted at the end of the unwind section. To minimize the use of production floorspace, Desmedt Labels asked Martin Automatic’s designers to come up with a configuration that offered a smaller footprint. This saw the festoon stacked on top of the unwind, with the rollers at waist-level. ‘Not only did Martin Automatic shorten our line length, but it is easier for the operator to access the web, and the equipment is at a convenient height for cleaning,’ said Köhler. The two MBSF splicers are also fitted with a reverse-side-tape laser assist device, which accurately aligns the tape with the web edge and eliminates any hand/eye coordination errors. 

Martin Automatic European sales manager Bernd Schopferer added: ‘The request from Desmedt Labels to provide a bespoke installation played to our strength, as Martin Automatic is a design and engineering oriented company that has developed individual converting solutions for a wide range of different industries around the world. Adapting the MBS technology was straightforward because of the inherent simplicity of its design – and is something that could not have been achieved had the technology been complex.’