Engraving Solutions, the leader in the production of embossing rollers for the tissue industry and part of the Business Area Tissue of the Körber AG Group, has presented the latest products in the embossing field: innovative and highly competitive products that meet the actual needs of the market.
Premiumization and Digitization trends play an increasing role in the choice of converters. The best companies’ strength lies in offering products tailor-made according to the specific customer’s needs. Today customers want to co-create with the supplier, being part of the creative and development teams from the early stage of the project so that their requirements are fulfilled in the best way.
The challenge of Engraving Solutions is to provide customers with innovative solutions that answer and anticipate market changes and help them optimize their manufacturing performance. For this reason, thanks to its technological know-how in the production of embossing rollers, and keeping continuous exchanges and workshop with the customers, Engraving Solutions has expanded its offer with new digital and customized solutions that fit the new market trends and simplify the development processes of new products. This assures the shortest time-to-market of a new product on the shelf.
“Ghost is designed to satisfy the current trend in the tissue market. – Giacomo Bianchi, a Product Engineer of Engraving Solutions, declares – It is the new generation of embossing, obtained by combining, for the first time ever, two different micro-embossing techniques – chemical and mechanical – thereby bringing together the benefits of both. This innovative technology, unique to this market, results in a product that is more pleasing to the touch compared to the traditionally embossed one. Ghost is ideal for all high-yield products with refined embossing but is at the same time resistant, bulky and featuring excellent softness, independently from the number of plies and for every product type: toilet paper, kitchen towel and away-from-home segments”.
The name Ghost evokes the special shape of the points, similar to a ‘ghost sheet’. Actually, the profiles of the engravings have been softened, and therefore act with less cutting aggressiveness on the paper. This allows reducing the strength loss that usually occurs during embossing when traditional rhomboid points are used.
Ex-press is a technology that allows obtaining double-color products using embossing alone. By simply adding colored water to the pre-embossing station, on the first pass, the ply is decorated with one color, and when it is passed through the second embosser using colored glue, the final product comes out with 2 different colors providing a stunning aesthetic effect.
The last novelty presented by Engraving Solutions is Smoothie, the embossing system specifically designed for entry-level products that are capable of making the paper smoother and softer to the touch. This helps improving products made using traditional or recycled and unstructured paper, featuring low weight and low quantities of long fiber paper, that usually is less appealing to the consumer.
With a single pass, the ply is embossed on the side portions, with or without the use of glue, and calendered on the central portion. All this is obtained using a single embossing station instead of requiring a pair of rolls or a machine dedicated to the calendering of the entire ply.
The final result is a roll that is smooth on most of its surface and aesthetically pleasing thanks to the application of (colored or non-colored) decorations. This represents an improvement for entry-level products that have always privileged price and convenience over aesthetics and quality.
Engraving Solutions has also launched the new tissue configurator Touch ‘N’ Roll. The new configurator aims to simplify the process of new product development. Through a digital platform accessible from PC or tablet, with few simple steps, the user can create a preview of the finished product, a real-time prototype, even before making a pilot line test. This allows the customer to have an early view of the product and reduce decision-making time.
Thanks to the new configurator it is possible to create your own “tailor-made” product, choosing between three predefined types of rolls: toilet paper or kitchen paper, four types of paper each with a defined surface and color, 36 embossing designs, eight colors. A total of 1,440 configurations are possible.
The process is very simple:
1. Choose between three predefined types of rolls: toilet rolls, kitchen towels, away-from-home;
2. Insert technical specifications (height, diameter, virgin or recycled paper);
3. Choose between up to 36 embossing patterns in eight colors for a total of 1,440 possible configurations;
4. Obtain a preview of the final product.
The customer can consult at any time, remotely, the complete list of engravings made and has immediate availability and access to the technical data sheets of the rollers. Also, through the platform, the customer can communicate directly with the Engraving Solutions experts, reserve a pilot test and check the order status of new rollers or product tests. A real digital experience that allows the customer to speed up the decision-making cycle and reduce its time-to-market.