A team for extraordinary solutions
We're not saying that everything is possible – we’re honest about that. But when we receive an inquiry, we take a close look, listen to our customers, and weigh our options carefully before saying no. Hello, I'm Marco Burkart, Head of the Project Sales Team at Robatech, and today I'd like to introduce you to my department.
The PST department acts as an internal dialogue partner at Robatech. We mediate between our international subsidiaries, who know the customers' requirements, and the development department at headquarters. And we examine what is possible when standard solutions are not sufficient. We then draw up specifications and perform technical calculations. We lend Robatech products for testing or test our customers' adhesives on the desired substrates with our adhesive application systems at our in-house Application Center in Muri, Switzerland. In close cooperation with the subsidiaries and their customers, we find the best solutions for their individual requirements. That's what we call customer focus.
In practice, this looks like this, for example: An OEM approached one of our subsidiaries in search of a 300 mm wide coating head for intermittent coating for large paper packaging. On the one hand, the adhesive application system was to be used to apply intermittent cross stripes, and on the other hand, frame patterns. This meant that the application width had to be adjustable in 25 mm increments – without changing masks. In addition, the cut-off quality requirements were very high, which is not easy to achieve with an application weight of 150 g/m2 and machine speeds of up to 90 m/min. Until then, we simply did not have a coating head in our portfolio that met all these conditions. The Vivo 18 coating head meets similar requirements, but only at a width of 2-18 mm. So we put our heads together.
The experience gained from countless special projects is incorporated into every customer project.
After many meetings, clarifications, calculations, and tests, we had developed a new, wider coating head with similar properties based on the existing Vivo 18 coating head. The segmented nozzle allows the application width to be changed by 25 mm without changing the mask. Now the customer could coat areas between 150 and 300 mm with adhesive without any gaps, just as desired. That's what we call solution-oriented thinking. The customer was extremely satisfied – and so were we.
«The goal of the Project Sales Team is to make the most of existing resources in order to meet the needs of our customers.»
Marco Burkart
The Application Center is a key location within our department, where we can carry out tests under realistic production conditions. Here, we apply the desired adhesives to substrate samples provided by our customers to demonstrate how the quality will be under the given circumstances. Customers from all over the world can test the performance of our application systems with their individual requirements here. This allows us to ensure that their expectations are met before any adjustments are made.
Test, test, test until it works.
There are also examples where a customer-specific development resulted in a new standard product. For example, a manufacturer of technical textiles was looking for a solution to efficiently coat roof underlay membranes with adhesive at a width of up to 3100 mm. The existing extrusion line, which had not previously used an adhesive application system, was to be retrofitted with one. Robatech was recommended to the customer as a specialist in wide adhesive coatings. However, there was no standard product that immediately met the customer's requirements. We already had very wide coating heads in our range, but 3100 mm was a step up. This meant that a coating head had to be further developed. In addition, a wide variety of materials and adhesives were to be used, all of which had to be extensively tested.
In addition to the technical challenges, there was also a lot to do at the project level. Since the customer had little experience with nozzle application systems, Robatech invested heavily in consulting and training. But the effort paid off: When the adhesive application system was finally integrated into the existing extrusion line, the system was running stably at full production after only two days of production start-up. The customer thus achieved significantly higher productivity and flexibility on the existing machine and a unique coating format of up to 3.1 m. Robatech also benefited from the project: in addition to gaining a new customer, we expanded our standard product range with a wider coating head and further strengthened our position as an expert in wide coating systems.
As you can see, progress is not only driven by the new products we bring to market, but also by customer-specific solutions that are developed in partnership with our customers. The good thing about this is that we are growing together with our customers. While our customers can expand and optimize their production with our support, we also continue to develop internally. The expertise we acquire in a project will benefit both our customers in future projects as well as Robatech's own new developments. After all, innovation is based on listening to our customers and designing our products according to their needs.