Installation taking place in the Shave & Gibson packaging hall
In February this year, we sent two of our most experienced production managers in Mike van Der Westhuizen and Rory Jackson to Austria to take a gander at some machines that the packaging division were looking into. “Visiting the Druckerel Vuralberg factory in Austria was a real teat to visit,” Van der Westhuizen said. They had their eyes on Bobst’s latest die-cutting machines, the Bobst Visioncut.
“Seeing the Visioncut in action and how their systems operate gave us a great understanding on the improvements it would make back home,” Jackson excitedly said.
After returning home and sharing their reports with members of exco, it was decided that the Visioncut would be the next acquisition for the Shave & Gibson Packaging plant and we would be the first company in the world to purchase it.
Packaging MD, Dave King said that it hasn’t been all plain-sailing. “Little did we all know, that we would be taking delivery of this monster of a machine during the COVID-19 pandemic while most countries were on lockdown. From shipping delays to the ports being closed, our excitement for the revealing of this machine would be dampened considerably as we weren’t sure when it would actually reach our plant.”
John Arton-Powell, our long-standing Packaging Engineer said “we are incredibly fortunate to have an outstanding relationship with Beswick Machinery, the local agents for Bobst, the world’s premier brand of autoplatens. As the Bobst Swiss engineers were unable to travel due to the Covid-19 lockdown, Beswick sent their two top engineers, Tyron Wallace and Theodore Kapratsis to perform the installation. It has been interesting using zoom and you tube to connect with Bobst continuously through wifi to ensure that the machine is installed to specification”.
The relationship between S&G and Beswick Machinery goes back to the very start of S&G, and this relationship has borne much fruit over the years. “We are hopeful to have the machine up and running towards the end of June” commented Dave King.
