Metpack Innovation Award winners announced
Image: Schuchrat Kurbanov/MESSE ESSEN
The Metpack Innovation Award jury has announced its winners for the much-anticipated 2023 edition.
A total of 19 exhibitors submitted 31 entries to the awards this year.
Based on several criteria, the independent international jury determined the winners of this year’s Metpack Innovation Award. Innovation content, cost savings, as well as quality improvement and sustainability were the decisive factors for the assessment with the help of a points system. The contenders delivered a close neck-and-neck race but the final winners are:
- Gold award: Koenig & Bauer Metalprint’s MetalControl
- Silver award: Actega’s ROTARflow
- Bronze award: Can Man’s PowerCUT SuperFLEX
MetalControl wins gold award
The Würzburg/Germany-based world market leader in the field of printing and coating lines, drying systems and exhaust air purification solutions, Koenig & Bauer, won the Metpack Innovation Gold award with its closed-loop colour control system. MetalControl scans each sheet and measures the ink density. The results are transmitted digitally to the control panel, evaluated and the ink zones automatically corrected. The award-winning innovation from Koenig & Bauer is a 100% closed-loop colour control system within the press that guarantees maximum colour stability and consistency, independent of the operator. Manual adjustments are no longer necessary. Complaints, test prints and makeready times are reduced.
ROTARflow in second place
Wesel/Germany-based Actega has launched a new digital solution that monitors the amount of sealant applied to lids by rotating liners and makes immediate adjustments as a result. ROTARflow detects any deviation from the target value of the dry film weight and automatically changes pressure and needle lift accordingly. Downtimes and manual interventions are eliminated. Production data is also available from any digital device. ROTARflow reduces cost, material and time input while increasing quality.
PowerCUT SuperFLEX awarded bronze
With the PowerCUT SuperFLEX duplex cutting machine from the Swiss company Can Man, fully automatic format changes are possible in a world record time of 15 minutes. In addition to the enormous time savings, the innovation has another advantage: damage to cutting tools is avoided by eliminating manual operation. The machine also offers maximum flexibility for cutting all formats with a high cutting accuracy.
Congratulations to Can Man, Actega and Koenig & Bauer. We look forward to celebrating with you during the rest of the week!