ORLANDO, FLA. (April 17, 11 a.m. ET) — After nearly a decade, Wrapping Machinery SA returned to NPE and to the North American market.
The Stabio, Switzerland-based thermoformer last attended in NPE in 2003, before turning its focus to the European market, said Giovanni Morandi, area manager.
Now, with new machines and a larger worldwide prescence, WM is setting its sights on America.
“We believe the time has arrived to challenge the market,” Morandi said.
“We are here now because now we have all the necessities…to support the American market.”
The company has two main reasons for expanding – a shrinking gap between the euro and the dollar, and a changing mentality in American manufacturing, he said.
North American machines tend to be larger, because utility costs are lower and floor space isn’t often an issue, but now manufacturers are embracing the European model of small, rapid machinery, he said.
The company also has the technology to monitor machines remotely, so an engineer in Switzerland can easily communicate with a client in California and diagnose machine issues, he said.
“We don’t want to simply sell the machine and say ‘bye bye, it’s your problem now’,” he said, adding that WM has an agreement with a company in Chicago to handle North American clients.
To mark their return, WM introduced their newest thermoforming line, a series of vacuum and pressure forming machines dubbed the FC Speedmaster Plus.
The machines offer vacuum and compressed air forming, in-line punch and die and steel rule cutting, and vertical stacking units.
Most of the Speedmaster machines are used for food packaging, like making trays or salad containers, but they can also be used to make blisterpacks and other sterile medical packaging, he said.
The machines are designed to be easy to use and have low maintenance costs, Morandi said. They are fully customizable, and by making small changes, the new machines have the pontential to lower energy usage by 1 kW per hour.
“We want our machines to pay attention to the human factor,” he said.
