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Eminence Business Media

Thursday, January 25, 2018

High Performance Vacuum Metallizing from the Bobst K5 Vision

The new Bobst K5 Vision is a compact vacuum metallizer ideal for flexible packaging converters and CPP/PE film producers.

Total Flexibility
The new K5 Vision is compact and designed to handle a wide variety of different film types including heat sensitive films and thin gauge substrates. It can run at speeds up to 840m/min, is available in widths from 1250mm to 2450mm and can house roll diameters of up to 1000mm.

Innovative New Features
Bobst is continually innovating and the K5 Vision is no exception, the machine incorporates a Ø600mm coating drum providing the largest coating window in the industry that increases aluminium collection efficiency by up to 16% resulting in less consumables, an extended boat life and a 10-15% energy reduction. It also provides better film cooling due to the increased surface area of the drum; additional cooling is also given by the 2-zone gas wedge which provides better conduction of heat between the substrate and the drum which is important for heat sensitive films such as CPP and LDPE.

High Productivity
The powerful, robust evaporation source with a staggered ceramic boat arrangement provides excellent coating uniformity. It also incorporates easy access to clean the boats and aluminium spools mounted on a removable trolley for easy changing; the full width viewing windows give an improved view of the source and the metallization process.

The K5 Vision pumping group is robust and has a compact design with shorter pipe lengths giving the lowest footprint in the industry; it comprises of dry rotary screw pumps with a consistently high vacuum performance, booster pumps that operate at double the normal speed for maximum efficiency and floor mounted diffusion pumps located underneath the evaporation zone eliminating the risk for backstreaming of oil on to the film.

Energy Reduction
The K5 Vision incorporates the Bobst Eco Mode which reduces energy consumption by up to 50% during stand-by, only delivering energy and cooling water when needed, and this result in a reduced carbon footprint and significant savings in production costs.

Perfect Winding
The renowned Bobst winding mechanism incorporates a 6 drive system giving 3 independent tension control zones. It provides low tension winding with adjustable bowed rollers to produce a virtually wrinkle-free metallization process and an optional pre-drum vari bow for better handling of thinner substrates.

The K5 Vision can handle a wide range of substrates including thin gauge films and enables quick changeover of different film types making it the ideal machine for converters. It is also able to handle heat sensitive films such as CPP and PE which makes it perfect for film producers of these thermally sensitive materials.

Bobst AluBond
The Bobst AluBond process provides high metal adhesion with values up to 5N/15mm and improves dyne level retention through vacuum metallization, eliminating the need for chemically treated films. AluBond is an advanced hybrid metal coating technology which achieves higher barrier properties on BOPP and CPP films than conventional metallizing processes.

One of the world’s leading suppliers of equipment and services to packaging and label manufacturers in the folding carton, corrugated board and flexible materials industries, Bobst has a presence in more than 50 countries, runs 12 production facilities in 8 countries and employs more than 5 000 people around the world.