Behind the machines in tissue conversion
Founded in 1982 by a group of four young friends in Serbia, 9.Septembar very successfully navigated not only the significant challenges inherent to starting any new business, but also the various geopolitical circumstances that defined Eastern Europe in the decades that followed. Today, the company deservedly takes its place as one of the machinery production leaders in the niche – but highly specialised – tissue converting industry. Sales Director Vladimir Babic spoke with Richard Hagan.
From its manufacturing headquarters i n Serbia, 9.Septembar designs, engineers and manufactures specialised tissue converting machinery for the global tissue converting industry. Its machinery is used by tissue converting companies primarily for the production of napkins - for which 9.Septembar’s machinery is particularly well-known - as well as a broad swathe of other tissue products including wipes, handkerchiefs and special rolls for medical and other applications.
The napkins produced by 9.Septembar’s machinery, in particular, can be found everywhere from supermarket shelves to top hotels and restaurants.
Blowing away the competition
9.Septembar’s single production and headquarters facility benefits from its highly connected, central location in Čačak, Serbia, about an hour from the airport and only 144km from Belgrade. With the exception of a small portfolio of third-party parts, 9.Septembar’s machinery products are entirely manufactured in-house, giving the company’s teams complete control over quality and production timeframes. Third-party components, meanwhile, are sourced directly from leading Class A suppliers such as SKF, Eaton, Omron Amron and Siemens.
All of 9.Septembar’s production takes place using highly sophisticated machinery
What’s in a name?
When registering the company, the founders lacked a corporate name. However, they decided to complete the form anyway. They asked the clerk the date, then wrote it in on the form incorrectly. No new form was available, and they were not allowed to cross out their ‘chosen’ name. 9.Septembar was born.
from the world’s leading producers, including HAAS and DMG MORI. This combination of high-quality parts and sophisticated machinery, matched with 9.Septembar’s in-house quality assurance, continuously ensures that the company’s machines remain amongst the best in the market. Overseeing all of its operations is 9.Septembar’s team of 120 staff members, of which fifteen are engineers based in its research and development lab.
9.Septembar is on an ongoing drive to be a trendsetter in the tissue converting industry. One of the ways in which it aims to retain its position as a market leader is in its embracing of Industry 4.0. Consequently, 9.Septembar’s team of R&D engineers collaborates with top academics
at the University of Belgrade to leverage their expertise and knowledge in the company’s innovation programme.
“We have really good connections with many of the professors at the university, and in fact, several of my own classmates are now professors there themselves,” said Sales Director Vladimir Babic. “Thanks to our connections with these leading minds , we are on top of the latest trends at all times and we understand exactly what needs to be done for us to fully embrace Industry 4.0. Ultimately, it delivers huge benefits to our customers and even to the end-users of their products.”
Productivity and Industry 4.0
Many of 9.Septembar’s machinery products – particularly ones installed in Europe –already benefit from Industry 4.0 features, according to Mr Babic: “Customers with Industry 4.0 machinery have full remote control of the machine’s production, as well as real-time feedback about the machine’s status via an easy-to-use app.
“Whether it’s the machine’s current capacity and production speed, how much the machine produced during the day, how many boxes of product it created, or even how many stops it had and the causes of the stoppages, all of this can be remotely monitored. It means that there
member or foreman to be physically on the floor watching the machines.”
9.Septembar’s remote control app extends far beyond simple real-time monitoring, even allowing the operator to select and remotely load a new recipe onto the machine, or to adjust the machine on the fly for new work orders, without having to stop the machine first.
“Our machinery designs keep the operator, and their ease of working with the machine, in mind from day one,” said Mr Babic . “These features together make our machines highly effective, in addition to being some of the fastest, highest capacity machines on the market. It’s one of the ways in which we’re not only following trends to meet customer expectations, but setting trends, too.”
Given that the machines are connected to the internet, 9.Septembar’s engineers are able to log in to any machine at a moment’s notice to diagnose any problems and recommend solutions to the customer, thus speeding up the resolution often to a matter of minutes, and avoiding the time and expense of flying an engineer to the customer’s site. It also allows software updates to be remotely and instantly delivered to 9.Septembar-deployed machinery, ensuring that the product is constantly operating efficiently and correctly.
The future is in the bag
The world is gradually moving away from single-use plastics, including plastic shopping bags. Having long ago identified this trend while anticipating the retail sector’s demand for alternative shopping bags,
9.Septembar is proud to introduce EOS; its latest machine designed initially for the production of paper bags, but capable of also producing paper rolls for applications such as dental bibs, bedsheet covers and specialised wipes.
“We’re expecting the demand for paper bags to steadily rise, and we are optimistic that EOS will become the machine that the industry will turn to for paper bag production,” Mr Babic explained. “I really believe that EOS can change not only 9.Septembar’s trajectory, but also move the world forward in general. It’s an innovation that we are heavily invested in. The machine is currently on our factory floor and is in the final phase of testing for the production of both paper bags and paper rolls.”
Concluding, Mr Babic spoke about 9.Septembar’s approach to solving its
customers’ production needs: “We don’t see a customer’s production problems as problems, but as challenges. Every new idea that our customers bring us is a challenge that has a solution, and it’s our job as engineers to find the best path to that solution.
“Looking forward, the huge effort we’ve made to build better, more durable, faster , more eco-friendly machines will continue to form the core of those solutions: and in the meantime, we plan to maintain our position in the major leagues of the industry.”
