Wall-to-wall digital solutions Olbrich

WALL-TO-WALL DIGITAL SOLUTIONS

Olbrich is a market leader in the design and manufacture of cutting edge machinery for the manufacture of wall and floor coverings, and coated and laminated film products. Today 45 per cent of its production is focused on the automotive industry and the balance for the converting equipment sector. Philip Yorke reports on the latest developments of this ambitious and dynamic innovator.

The Olbrich Group is headquartered in Bocholt, Germany and has around 1000 employees worldwide. Its operations are conducted from four key European locations. The company was founded in 1949 and started out with the manufacture of printing, coating and drying equipment for wall covering applications and R2R products. The parent company, Borgers, was founded in 1866, and specialised in serving the automotive industry from the outset.

In the automotive sector, Olbrich is specialised in the production of tools and trimming machines, as well as water jet equipment. It offers a comprehensive range of equipment for the production of automotive and trucking interior parts, including dashboards, ceilings and arm rests.

Within the converting business, Olbrich offers a broad range of machines and equipment for the manufacture of a variety of self-adhesive films and papers on the same coating line. In addition, there are product lines available for decorative, and medical items, as well as for pharmaceutical products, including sophisticated trans-dermal systems, oral films, and lines for wound-care among many others.

Olbrich provides manufacturing solutions for electrical products, insulating materials, metal foils, membranes and foam. In January 2013, Olbrich recorded another significant milestone in its rich history when it announced the takeover of the Hamburg-based Sam Sungan Pagendarm company. A leader in its sector, the company supplies innovative machinery for the flexible packaging industry for the production of labels, tapes and in-line coating solutions. Today Olbrich remains a familyowned business and in 2017 recorded sales of more than €120 million.

Customised digital technology

As an innovation leader, Olbrich is always searching for new cutting edge solutions to keep its customers one step ahead of the competition. In this context it offers its clients the highest levels of precision, efficiency and added value. At the international trade fair, Heimtextil, held in Frankfurt, Olbrich introduced its latest digital printing solutions for the wall-coverings industry.

The new digital printing technology features an oil-based ink system which is specially tailored to meet the requirements of PVC-based wall covering producers. The printed items on display by Olbrich have been produced in its corporate Technical Centre in Bocholt, Germany. The printing widths of 550mm enable a trimmed standard product width of 530mm. Printing speeds can be as fast as 70m/min in single-pass production featuring CMYK colours with 600 dpi.

expanding technology

For many years, Olbrich has been offering virtually all technologies required for laminating, coating, printing and refining rolled goods, which customers from the floor covering and foil industries rely on for their production purposes.

Until now they only had to use the machines of other makers for the manufacture of carrier foils, as Olbrich did not cater for this particular step in production. This situation has been overcome recently with the development of dedicated in-house research and expertise that has resulted in the availability of new ‘keyword calendar technology’ for its customers.

Following this break-through, the first big order for a three-roller calendar with a four-metre working width has been designed and tested. This was a logical step for Olbrich as the technology leader in the refining of foils, to be able to offer the manufacturing capability for the foils themselves. This strategic decision was acted upon as a result of continuous requests from customers, which convinced Olbrich to invest in the new technology, and thereby close the only gap left in its comprehensive product portfolio.

The brains behind the calendar project included project engineer Johannes Kemp and sales manager for the floor covering Industry, Johannes Klein-Heibling, who also oversaw the production and delivery of the first major order. During the calendaring process, the synthetic material is transported into a gap between two rollers of the calendar and rolled out under pressure to create a precisely defined film. Calendar technology developed by Olbrich is very versatile, particularly in the manufacture of floor coverings, self-adhesive products and decorative rolls.

Innovation driving sales

The development of new cutting-edge technologies has been the company’s priority for almost 70 years and it is this that has been driving sales since its inception. With its interdisciplinary project and engineering teams, Olbrich has the expertise to develop customerspecific and intelligent machine solutions as well as plant concepts for the manufacture of web-like products such as wallpapers, floor coverings, films and foils and high-tech textiles.

Olbrich actively anticipates the industry’s future trends and together with its customers develops new opportunities for the future with its unrivalled process and production technologies. Today advanced technology applications is, and remains, the company’s number one priority, as well as its inspiration. An outstanding component of this is the company’s renowned technical centre, where it can test a wide range of products in real-time and simulate actual production scenarios. n

For further details of the Olbrich Group’s latest products and services visit: www.olbrich.de