Browse our clientsAutobond was formed in 1978 by George Gilmore and the company is still a family run business, with the third Gilmore generation working at its plant in Derbyshire, UK and Connecticut in the USA. Autobond’s history is littered with ‘industry firsts’ as it has pushed forward the boundaries of laminating technology, so that now it leads the world in this field. In addition to designing, building and installing laminators, the company is a major importer and exporter of thermal and water-based film and a key manufacturer of water-based adhesives for use with laminators of any make.
Since Ipex 2006 Autobond has pioneered the development of other finishing processes within its laminators. Today, customers have the opportunity to produce, for example, encapsulated or embossed work, UV roller coating, printed material containing a magnetic film, or variable spot UV varnish on top of film. The latter option represents a major post press technology launch at Ipex 2010 and has caused interest worldwide in the lead up to the exhibition.
“One of the main reasons for our success has been the high percentage of profits that we reinvest on an ongoing basis in research and development,” says managing director John Gilmore, who runs the company with his brother Alan. “This has allowed us to continuously develop and try new concepts. The idea of applying variable spot UV varnish has created a huge number of enquiries from around the globe during the last two months and we’re expecting a great deal of interest from visitors to Ipex.”
Autobond is represented by a well established networked of global agents, which is constantly being expanded. During 2010 the company has appointed dealers in Greece, Holland, Iran and Russia, and will be speaking to potential new partners at Ipex.
“It’s surprising how new markets continue to open. In the months leading up to Ipex we’ve had two orders from Morocco, three from Iran, and our second order ever from Germany. Our traditional markets, such as the UK and USA, are growing – we’re currently building five laminators for the USA, which will be shipped during May, June and July. We’ve seen an increasing number of enquiries from countries we have not previously sold many laminators to, such as Brazil, Libya and India.
“People would be amazed are how many orders we receive from companies who have seen nothing more than a video of the laminator in operation (these include the recent orders from Morocco and Iran). Sometimes they’ve watched Autobond machinery running years earlier at an exhibition, but not always. Placing an order like this shows considerable faith and I believe this is largely due to Autobond’s long standing reputation in the marketplace. The very first laminator we sold – a hand-fed, water-based model – is still in operation!
“Because we supply the adhesive for use with the water-based laminators we have installed over the years, we have a good idea of where they are and if they are still in use. More than 90 per cent of those early machines are in operation today. We would expect that if someone bought a laminator from us now, it would be producing quality work effectively in 25 years time.”
Autobond bought the manufacturing rights for TH Dixon laminators in 1990, and acquired the assets of laminator manufacturer Lamtex when it went into receivership in 2006. However, it has been the technical breakthroughs that mark the company’s highlights; one of the most significant being the launch in 1993 of laminators able to handle thermal film.
This development marked the beginning of a shift away from more complex water-based laminating, which required greater operator skill, and made the process more appealing to sheet-fed printers. Until then, laminating had been the domain of finishing houses and specialist trade firms.
“We continued to automate functions on these thermal laminators, which made them easier to use and faster to make-ready, and this in turn helped to make laminating an attractive ‘value-added’ option. Printers were keen to offer this as an in-house service and laminating work to improve the appearance and durability of the printed product has made the process increasingly popular over the last ten years.
“Of course, the other big attraction was cost. A complete rethink of design during the late nineties meant that a B1 Autobond laminator, which would have cost £180,000 in 1998 could be purchased for £110,000 by 2001, with the latter being significantly more productive. The standardisation of parts has streamlined production and reduced the price even further, while the redesign that led to the launch of the Mini series resulted in laminators with an extremely small footprint – another important factor in their appeal to printers.”
At Ipex 2010 Autobond is launching its new Mini range with an even smaller footprint than before, while the introduction of a manual fed model has created an entry-level version – this new B2 Mini 76 MF has a footprint of only 1.2 x 1.2 metres. Autobond can call upon a high degree of engineering design and build facilities, including its own machine shop, at its UK manufacturing plant and this allows it to make bespoke machines to suit customers’ specific requirements.
Apart from the new manual-fed version, Autobond equips its laminators with Heidelberg Speedmaster feed heads or Heidelberg Stahl suction drum feeders. The incorporation of Siemens electronics allows straightforward, touch screen operation of most functions, as well as enabling the use of remote diagnostics facilities. This lets Autobond engineers log on to its laminators anywhere in the world and provide help to operators if they have a query.
With the latest Mini series Autobond has increased substantially the components it sources from reliable manufacturers in Germany and Switzerland and in addition to feeders and electronics this now includes pumps, water heaters, pneumatic bearings, motors and gear boxes, drive belts, belting and sensors.
One of the biggest trends in laminating has been caused by the growth of the digital market, where printers want to improve the image quality and durability of the final printed product. This has traditionally presented major difficulties. Stock coming out of most digital presses is low in moisture and high in static, making sheets difficult to separate and feed. Some toners, particularly oil-based toners, are extremely difficult to get film to adhere to.
The ability of Autobond’s laminators to heat the adhesive to a high temperature and apply a substantial amount of pressure in the laminator’s nip rollers enables successful lamination of digitally printed work, which has made the Autobond models very popular in this rapidly expanding market. The company expects many of the visitors to its Ipex stand will be digital print houses, or litho printers with digital machines, looking to bring laminating in-house – a trend Autobond expects to continue for a long time to come.
