Made in India: Daya automatic dry lamination machine model Turbo

The Daya automatic dry lamination machine model, Turbo, is equipped with a vertical dryer, which eliminates the curing time of six to eight hours for water-based adhesive applications. The temperatures can be set as per job requirements, coating thickness, and weather conditions, such as extreme cold, heat or humid, film thickness, and others.

The Turbo is for film lamination on paper, boards, PET from 120 to 500-gsm, with BOPP, PET, MetPET, Holographic, Hololens films, with either water-based adhesive or thermal.

Aimed at mid-size business with limited investment budgets and space constraints, looking for productivity, the machine was launched in April 2018. Ideal for printers, converters, publication houses, packaging, duplex as well as corrugation, the machine has already been installed at five locations in India, including Printmann Associates and AB Print Pack in Delhi.

“With Turbo, since the water content evaporates before lamination, it acts like thermal lamination film. Also, heat process lamination takes place with heavy duty hydraulic pressure,” explains Sonal Sheth of Daya (Sheth Printograph). “This, in turn, provides strong bonding with no wrinkles and no bubbles. With this, the sheets can be put to the next process immediately.”  

Sheth adds that the specially-designed nipping heating system like circulating oil, or the latest electromagnetic heating system of the machine provides strong bonding which is essential for passing any tape tests.

The automatic aspect of the machine includes auto overlap controls, auto dryer, auto rewinding tension controls, and auto sheet separation.

Going automatic
Sheth explains that the machine is a step towards shifting from manual to automatic, thereby eliminating drying time, and reducing wastage. “Today customers want to avoid labour dependency and need faster productivity and this model gives both the advantages,” she says. 

While Sheth agrees that automation has a cost attached to it, she argues that it’s a one-time investment. “And the benefits in terms of higher productivity, lesser downtime, minimum wastages, no rejections, etc outweigh the investment cost,” she adds.

The Turbo comes with auto overlap control, oil heating and/ or electromagnetic heating system, heavy duty hydraulic pressures, automatic adhesive dispensing pneumatic pump, auto tension controller, and differential shaft for strip lamination.

Sheth says the auto overlap control can be set as per job needs. This eliminates the dependency on operator efficiency, thereby saving the film and minimising wastage due to gapping. “The machine is user-friendly with easy changeovers and low maintenance,” she adds.

Using Turbo
While the machine is user-friendly, Sheth says the company’s experienced and trained engineers provide full onsite and online support to customers. 
According to Sheth, the existing customers are using the machine for all kinds of packaging, book covers, premium product packaging, mobile rigid box, sweet/gift boxes, calendars, and plastic printed sheets.

One year after the launch of the machine, Daya is now looking to convince its existing customer base as well as new customers to use the Turbo model to improve their efficiency and increase productivity.

According to Sheth, a good shopfloor management is all about 360 degrees competence with everyone taking responsibility for his/her specified role on the floor. “Preventive maintenance; root cause analysis; optimal use of raw material within its validity date; planning; safety of man, material and machine  are the keys,” she says. “To sum up, it’s all about managing expectations and change management to create ongoing improvement.

About the recent trends in the printing industry, Sheth said today everybody wants automation, as time is changing fast and demands are increasing and diversification with strategic alliances is the key. “The trend is to leverage opportunities in shortest possible time and move on to the next level before others.

Whosoever thinks of the future in present can be out of the past soon,” Sheth concludes.