It has recently celebrated 50 years of activity in the cardboard converting sector, where it is known as a highly reliable contractor with quality workmanship, also thanks to a fleet of top-notch and always up-to-date machines. We are talking about Cartotecnica San Michele, which after having put BOBST die-cutters into production, has chosen to expand its gluing department with an EXPERTFOLD 110 A2 and subsequently with a VISIONFOLD 110 A1
Like many companies in the province of Verona, born and developed around the business induced by a large group such as Mondadori, Cartotecnica San Michele also had a deep bond with the Lombard publishing house which has an important editorial printing center in the area
In fact, the company was founded in 1972 by Renzo Pavanello, who was employed in Mondadori, and the choice was prompted precisely by the fact that the publishing group had decided to abandon the cardboard converting activities, outsourcing production. In this way was born Cartotecnica San Michele which, specializing precisely in cardboard converting for publishing, production of covers, die-cut inserts to support the editorial product and for children, production of half-cut die-cut stickers, grew over the years, establishing itself as a point of reference, not only for Mondadori for which it carried out a large part of the production, but also for all those small and medium-sized printing companies that entrusted Cartotecnica San Michele with the finishing operations of their printed matter.
Dal prodotto cartotecnico editoriale al packaging
Oggi il fatturato dell’azienda è suddiviso equamente fra il mondo editoriale e il packaging, nel quale, anche grazie a tecnologie all’avanguardia, la Cartotecnica San Michele ha saputo ampliare le proprie competenze e l’offerta a un mercato sempre più esigente in termini di qualità del prodotto cartotecnico e tempistiche. “Siamo da sempre fedeli al marchio BOBST quando con le prime 1080 abbiamo fatto esperienza e siamo cresciuti nel mondo della fustellatura automatica. Arrivavamo da anni di platine manuali e il salto fu notevole”, ci racconta Enea Dalla Valentina, responsabile commerciale. Oggi in azienda lavorano 4 fustellatrici BOBST: SP 102 SE, SPERIA 106 e due SP 142 E, equamente suddivise fra il formato 70x100cm e 100x140cm.
From the editorial cardboard product to the packaging
Today the company’s turnover is divided equally between the publishing world and the packaging, in which, also thanks to cutting-edge technologies, Cartotecnica San Michele has been able to expand its skills and offer to an increasingly demanding market in terms of quality of the cardboard product and timing. “We have always been loyal to BOBST brand when we gained experience with the first 1080s and grew up in the world of automatic die-cutting. We came from years of manual platen and the leap was considerable”, Enea Dalla Valentina tells us, sales manager. Today, 4 BOBST die-cutters work in the company: SP 102 SE, SPERIA 106 and two SP 142 E, equally divided between the 70x100cm and 100x140cm format.
To complete the production process, an old folder-gluer was also in operation in the company which, however, was only used to fold quarters, sexts, heavy weight blanks but certainly not to produce packaging. “The decisive leap came when, by chance, we found ourselves viewing what would have been our new automatic autoplaten in a BOBST workshop in Milan, and there we also saw a Domino 90 folder-gluer that the technicians were overhauling. In short, we took that folder-gluer home and thus completed the packaging production cycle, growing a lot in recent years”, adds Dalla Valentina.
An advanced gluing department for an accurate and quality service
The quality in the die-cutting is certainly an excellent starting point but in order not to frustrate the work done, it is equally important to adopt cutting-edge technologies also in the gluing department. Therefore, shortly before Covid, Cartotecnica San Michele decided to invest in a new BOBST EXPERTFOLD 110 A2 folder-gluer equipped with all the essential auxiliary elements for a subcontractor to guarantee maximum quality and safety in the food packaging sector.
“The EXPERTFOLD has been set up with the 4-6 corner module, anti-mixing code reading, glue presence reader, devices to produce flat or Z-shaped bags, making it as complete as possible for our needs. In the meantime, again at the request of some of our customers, given that we serve various companies in the food sector, we have embarked on the MOCA path to produce packaging in direct contact with food, and this has allowed us to grow further”, adds Enea Dalla Valentina.
The growth in volumes has convinced Cartotecnica San Michele to recently insert a second folder-gluer, the VISIONFOLD 110 A1 also by BOBST to be able to exploit on both lines all those external peripherals that had already been purchased with the EXPERTFOLD. Although we are dealing with two different lines, apart from some particular applications, the rest of the company’s production can be managed with both machines.
“For the subcontractor, technological equipment is very important. When I started working in this company in 1999 we served 10-15 customers in a month, while today we serve 50-60 and in extremely short times. The market is much more fragmented and the time it takes to produce an order for a large customer must also be considered for smaller orders. Therefore, the organization of work and efficient production systems, which guarantee flexible and fast start-ups, as well as an excellent quality of the final product, allow us to serve the market with good performance and the right margins. Furthermore, having included the plasma gluing module in the latest machine has also allowed us to penetrate new markets, mostly niche markets, such as those of plasticized boxes, and without any fear”, concludes Dalla Valentina, leaving the door open to new investments, also in the light of the great expansion that cardboard packaging market is experiencing, opportunities not to be missed, for those who, like Cartotecnica San Michele, has made punctual and quality service to other companies its strong point.
