This article was originally published by Sprinter News.
Pozitive Signs & Graphic Supplies has announced the sale of the first Felix Gluer XY Gluer Plotter in Australia to Sydney-based printer Clarke Murphy Print.
Pozitive first announced its partnership with the Warsaw-based automated gluing machine manufacturer earlier this year in May at drupa.
Pozitive managing director Philip Trumble told Sprinter the Felix Gluer XY Gluer Plotter is a state-of-the-art solution for precise application of both hot melt and cold glues. It replaces hand gluing using a CNC XY movement of a glue gun and applies the glue by machine.
“When I first heard about Felix Gluer, I spoke to some of our clients to get a better understanding of what type of companies use gluing and why this type of machine would be important to their business. Clarke Murphy was one of those clients that I went to because we have such a good, long-term relationship with them,” said Trumble.
“What I found from this feedback was that a lot of clients use hand glue guns for assembling materials such as point of sale displays and short run packaging, so I saw that there was potential for this machine in the Australian market.
“I met up with the Felix team at FESPA earlier this year, went to Warsaw where the company is based and met some of their clients using Felix Gluer equipment and decided that this was the type of machine that we needed to bring to Australia.
“We already sell the flatbed printers, we already sell the flatbed cutters, but we didn’t realise that after that customers need to use glue to assemble these elements together. This now completes the workflow of production with the equipment we already have so it fits perfectly into our current client base,” said Trumble.
“Not only that, we have high labour costs in Australia, and there are also OH&S risks around RSI associated injuries with manually holding glue guns so there are a lot of benefits to moving to automation and being able to redeploy staff to do other tasks.”
Following discussions with Clarke Murphy, Pozitive and Felix Gluer conducted demonstrations for Clarke Murphy owner Benn Murphy at the Felix Gluer booth at drupa, where Felix Gluer also launched the new twin-head Duet machine to complement its single-head machine.
“This sale cements our partnership with Clarke Murphy Print even further,” said Trumble.
The machine is expected to be ready to ship within the next three months, with installation expected to be completed by the end of year.
“The Felix team will also be here for the install. It’s great to have a new partner like Felix that is motivated, passionate, and working so closely alongside our team.”
Trumble said since drupa, Pozitive has received a “steady pipeline of interest”.
“Some of the companies that are interested see it as an immediate need for their business, while there are others looking to implement it into their operations within the next 12 months. We expect this order to be the first of many more in Australia.”
