The art of making a difference

“Congratulations, a job truly well done”: this was the comment I made to myself after attending the Robatech virtual event, which had as its theme “the new dimension of gluing”. I particularly appreciated the realization, for its workmanship, technology and ease of navigation, beyond the important contents in terms of product innovation and sustainability, which Davide Morten tells us about in this interview. Stefano Lavorini

The only thing missing was the warmth of meeting in person, the non-verbal communication that comes with physical encounters between people, and the coffee to be enjoyed with friends... For the rest, the 3-day virtual event organized in March by Robatech  was impeccable, or rather up to the standards of the innovative and sustainable solutions for the application of adhesives presented by the Swiss company in a world premiere.

As a leading supplier of eco-friendly “solutions”, Robatech built a live platform that allowed visitors from all continents to move as if they were at a trade fair, avoiding the search for special effects and focusing on the concreteness of the contents and the expertise of its technicians. In short, the novelties were the masters.

And the feedback was certainly not lacking, as Davide Morten, manager of Robatech Italia, admits with satisfaction: «Already during the first day the first requests for offers arrived and on the second day the first order for a new system was signed, proving how evident the advantages and the peculiar characteristics of what we presented actually are».
In other words, with the latest product innovations Robatech wanted to create a new standard compared to what is available on the market today. This applies to the smart melter, Vision, the heated hose for high-precision adhesive applications, Performa, and finally to the high-speed adhesive application head, SpeedStar Compact.

Vision: energy efficiency and precision
Morten, who lived through the genesis of this new product from the beginning in 2014, emphasizes how Vision significantly increases the reliability of adhesive application in terms of precision, perfect uniformity and repeatability of results, which are essential requirements especially in primary packaging gluing processes. «This new applicator, in small, medium and large versions, with a number of hoses and heads from 3 to 8, has been designed and developed following six lines of action. First, it is a green product that offers energy savings far superior to our standard products - and also maximum safety of use for the operator, being fully insulated.

Secondly, it is a smart applicator, easy to manage and able to give the operator a significant amount of information. As a matter of fact, in addition to open interfaces and standardized fieldbus protocols for easy system integration, it has as a standard Wi-Fi card thanks to which it is possible to control the melter remotely with a smartphone, as an alternative to the optional touchscreen.

An alert and monitoring system also allows operating and status information to be displayed on a variable-color LED bar positioned in the corner of the Smart Terminal, so that employees can check even remotely that the gluing process is running smoothly or whether the adhesive needs to be refilled.
The display of the current pump pressure, status codes and four function keys make operation easy and allow rapid intervention if necessary.

Vision has been designed with both machine manufacturers and end users in mind. In fact, thanks to its innovative concept and compact size, it can be positioned at the shortest possible distance from the heads, thus reducing the length of the electro-heated hose. This is also thanks to the fact that the melter can be installed longitudinally or transversally and the 45° flexible connection area, FlexPort, allows the installation of the hoses in any direction.

The whole system has been designed from scratch, but consistently with Robatech’s philosophy of preserving the investment made by our customers without neglecting its retro-compatibility: it can thus be used on Vision hoses and heads manufactured from 2000 onwards, and in this way update and make more efficient the existing lines, reducing investments.
Much attention has also been paid to facilitate maintenance operations, gathering all the electrical, mechanical and pneumatic parts inside a single compartment closed by a maintenance door. In short, we have succeeded in making a practical, effective, functional and, just as importantly, beautiful product».

Performa and SpeedStar: a winning combination
Performa is the new electro-heated hose, suitable for low-viscosity thermoplastic adhesives and reactive adhesives, which requires up to 45% less energy than traditional hoses.
Thanks to the connection system called PrimeConnect, Robatech has then achieved several goals with a single solution: it is possible to connect Performa quickly and correctly in plug-and-play mode, without the use of specific tools. In addition, the viscosity of the adhesive remains constant even at the connection points with the melter and the head.
PrimeConnect is fully insulated and therefore eliminates cold spots at the connection points.

Morten points out that it was this product that received the most attention from attendees at the virtual event. “There are three main advantages. The first is that these hoses reach operating temperature in a time that is less than half that of a conventional hose, so significant energy savings not only in operating conditions.
The second great advantage is the fact that they do not have an external mesh sheath, but a plastic sheath that is abrasion resistant and easy to clean.

But the real innovation is the PrimeConnect plug-in connection system, which makes it possible to hook up the hoses without the need for tools, both to the melter and to the head, as well as - by eliminating the cold spots, i.e. the metal fittings between the hose and the head and between the hose and the melter - to maintain stable adhesive viscosity conditions. All this guarantees maximum safety for the user”.
Moving on to talk about the SpeedStar Compact electric head (to be unveiled in 2020), Morten reiterates that it has all the features to offer added value to the packaging industry. Made for precision adhesive application at high production speeds of up to 800 dots per second, it can apply millimeter dots of hot melt glue and short beads on tiny tabs and small surfaces.

The intelligent electronic control system with automatic stroke adjustment offers consistent precision over the entire service life of 500 million operating cycles. Compact, thanks to the separation of the electronic part from the housing, and with protection class IP65 it is offered for integration into complete systems and machines, even in very confined spaces.

Nice though...
Talking about the new Robatech products, compared to the novelty and the quality, not even undesirable surprises in terms of costs seem to await the customers.
The Vision melters, designed with Industry 4.0 integration in mind, have a price list that is only slightly higher than that of the tried and tested Concept series, which is still in production thanks to its proverbial reliability and exceptional value for money.
And as for the Performa hoses, they are available at the same price as the traditional ones, which have also been lowered. Morten is clear about this:«We are fully aware of the fact that we have to stay in the market and the challenge we have faced, and which I would say we are winning, is to be able to offer innovative products, of superior quality and performance, without going beyond what is economically acceptable to the customer».
If we add to this that Robatech equipment has a 2-year warranty and spare parts are insured for a period of 10-15 years, only one question arises: what more could you ask for? Maybe even make coffee!