Finishing & Screen Printing

Autobond Hat-Trick in France

Friday 07. January 2011 - The redesigned Mini laminators from UK manufacturer Autobond are proving to be popular in France, where two of the three machines installed during November have been this model. Autobond has been able to reduce the footprint of the laminator significantly in the new version, making them even more appealing where factory space is limited.

Olivier Thion, sales manager of French distributor Ollagnier in Lyon, says that he has also received huge interest in Autobond’s new inkjet LED curable spot UV varnish inline machine, which will be commercially available in 2011.
“The extensive range of laminators now available from Autobond is demonstrated well by the installations that have taken place recently in France,” says Mr Thion. “General commercial printer Imprimerie Poisneuf in Josselin has taken delivery of a Mini 76 T, the company’s first ever laminator. The easy use of Autobond laminators, along with a desire to reduce turnaround times and transportation of jobs between factories, means a growing number of sheet-fed printers are bringing laminating in-house.
“Another Autobond model, a Mini 76 TPHS FL, has been purchased by one of northern France’s leading finishing houses. This model can laminate both sides in one pass, while the Heidelberg rising pile, back separation feed head and stacker allow running speeds of up to 80 metres per minute. The third order, for a single sided 60 metres per minute Mini 74 THS, came from Europe’s largest producer of photo-books, which needed a machine to laminate sequentially numbered print. All three laminators are destined to handle short to long runs of very different types of work.”
Autobond’s new spot UV machine represents a major breakthrough in post press technology. The machine provides, for the first time, the ability to laminate thin film and then apply variable LED curable spot UV varnish inline, on jobs consisting of only a few sheets. All the operator has to do is upload an eight-bit 360 dpi bitmap of the print job. Make-ready between jobs is virtually eliminated and the running speed can be up to 30 metres a minute. The LED curable lamps do not produce ozone and use around 20 per cent of the power required by equivalent UV lamps.
“Autobond laminators are available in a variety of formats from 36 x 57 cm up to 125 x 165 cm, in single sided or perfecting mode,” says Olivier Thion. “The range includes water-based and thermal models, which can be landscape or portrait. Delivery options include joggers and full pile stackers. The sophisticated remote diagnostics incorporated into each laminator makes it very easy for an Autobond engineer to provide advice if an operator has a query, regardless of where they are based.”
During the last four years Autobond has pioneered the concept of incorporating other finishing processes within its laminators, and options now range from encapsulation and embossing, to magnet laminating used to produce fridge magnets.
In addition to Autobond, Ollagnier is the distributor in France for several leading manufacturers, including Busch, Brandtjen & Kluge, Hohner, and Grassi. Ollagnier sells Heidelberg, Polar, and Stahl equipment to public companies in Algeria.