Four decades of adhesive application that bonds

At the time the company was offering a machine for carton erection in the canning sector and decided to use hot melt instead of cold glue. ’Such hot melt equipment was available in the US but when we asked the price it amounted to half the price of the machine! This would have sent us straight into bankruptcy, so we were forced to design and develop our own equipment,’ recalls Hans Meyer, Robatech’s founder.

‘The equipment – a small pot with a piston shooting a dot of adhesive on to the board – worked flawlessly from the start and we successfully delivered the machine to the customer.’

Thus Robatech was born four decades ago.

By 1979, the business was relocated into new headquarters and the operating area increased to 1 000m2. The first standards for modern adhesive application technologies – still applicable today – were set in the early 1980s with the market introduction of the Roba 30-50 series: precise, electronic temperature control, reliable pump systems, and durable and fast application technologies controlled by user-friendly controls – integrated into a visionary modular kit structure, using the latest technologies.

With the positive development and increasing demand, the first international subsidiary was opened in 1980, with the founding of Robatech in Germany – and the company too its first step towards today’s globally successful company.

Always focused on customer benefits, the product portfolio was continually strengthened the company’s presence mushroomed in the international market. Initially, the focus was clearly on the packaging industry, but  the family- quickly established itself in other industries, such as graphics, wood and hygiene.

With the market introduction of the Concept equipment series with multifunction ICS electronics in 1995, Robatech offered the first hot melt application equipment with intuitive user interface, integrated fault diagnostics, and application control. Over the years, the technology has been continuously enhanced and adapted to meet changing market requirements.

A new generation

Under Hans Meyer’s entrepreneurial leadership, Robatech developed into a global company and since 1996 the family-owned business has been managed and expanded by his son, Marcel Meyer.

‘We maintain an intensive exchange with our customers and partners in order to meet the market’s stringent demands,’ explains Marcel Meyer. ‘We jointly search for and develop solutions. Thanks to innovative equipment and technologies, we can enable sustainable production for our customers.’

For Robatech, innovation equals alignment with customer benefits. However, innovation also means continuous progress and striving for improvement: for more sustainability, more reliability, and increased efficiency during processing of hot melt adhesive and cold glue in different industrial production processes.

The extremely short switching cycles of the SpeedStar Diamond hot melt application head introduced in 2012 enable small and precise adhesive dots in fast processes at very high speeds (up to 800 dots/second). With a guaranteed service life of at least 250-million switching cycles, this promotes an efficient gluing process.

Modularity and compatibility

The once visionary modular kit structure has been successfully implemented thanks to its numerous advantages. With the modular design of the Robatech products, customers can tune their systems to the process-specific requirements of their production. The modularity of the developments results in low overall process costs and a sustainable production, from procurement to commissioning, and finally maintenance.

Thanks to high component compatibility, existing systems can be simply retrofitted with new features. This lowers the costs for system modernisations, simplifies maintenance, and significantly increases the efficiency of production systems.

For 40 years, Robatech has delivered high-quality solutions and outstanding service for industrial adhesive application, with a particular focus on customer benefits. Quality, service, efficiency and economical use of resource are decisive factors. From the start, these aspects – together with technology innovations and worldwide presence – have been part of Robatech’s core competencies.

LabelStar M is Robatech’s cost-effective hot melt adhesive application solution for magazine-based wraparound labelling. An adjustable slot-type nozzle applies an adhesive strip to the end of the label; the label is wrapped around the bottle and glued along the overlap using an adjustable coating head. The system features impressively short changeover times, easy format changes and low maintenance requirements, advantages that guarantee improved productivity at lower costs.

Robatech offers the EasyStar hand applicator as powerful and reliable product for manual adhesive application. Here, a renowned Swiss manufacturer of packaging solutions is among the convinced users. The EasyStar hand applicator is a user-friendly, safe and flexible tool for the manual, fatigue-free application of thermoplastic hot melt adhesives in bead form.

Everything from a single source

With its comprehensive portfolio of products, solutions, and services, Robatech offers everything around adhesive application from a single source. This increases efficiency and profitability of industrial processes. Maintenance is optimised, downtime avoided, and system modernisations are implemented cost-efficiently.

In close collaboration with customers, machine builders, adhesive manufacturers, and suppliers, Robatech has developed high-quality complete solutions and customised service solutions for a problem-free gluing process.

With the strategic alliance formed in 2014 with WH Leary for the paper converting process, the company extended the product portfolio with the high-quality cold glue applications. Customers worldwide benefit from perfectly aligned complete solutions for optimum cold and hot glue application.