One machine for all tobacco types

Compact

Challenge

Labour-intensive tasks, dusty working environments and inflexible machines with long downtimes – these have been routine problems for manufacturers who cut chewing, shisha, snus or bidi tobacco. Until now.

Solution

The GTC 400 tobacco cutter from Garbuio is a simple, entry-level machine that solves all these problems. The cutter offers the following advantages:

• Simple operation with just one hour of training required
• Highly flexible with adaptable capacity and a variety of cutting shapes
• Low maintenance requirements, only knife exchange required
• Easy safety access controls
• Mass flow of up to 5,500 kg/h (cut width dependent)

Roberto Pietrobon, Senior Sales Manager at Garbuio, is familiar with the complaints of manufacturers who have to cut different types of shisha, chewing, snus or bidi tobacco every day. “Many manufacturers cut the tobacco manually. That usually creates a lot of dust and leads to loss of product, lower quality and a dirty working environment,” Pietrobon explains. “Those who already use cutters often complain about their reliability. Breakdowns cost valuable production time. The many manual tasks, specialist skills and knowledge involved are another problem, especially when it comes to maintaining the cutters.”

Clean, flexible, efficient

The time was ripe for the development team at Garbuio, led by Engineering Manager Mark Lewis, to take tobacco cutting processes in these niche segments to a new level with an innovative entrylevel cutter. Garbuio has incorporated all its technical know-how as a leading supplier of tobacco cutting machines to ensure the GTC 400 rotary cutter is superbly efficient. It can process a wide range of tobacco varieties as well as materials such as lamina, rib and recon for various products. “Manufacturers can adapt not only the capacity but also the cutting shapes to their own specific requirements. For example, they can use the cross-cut feature to produce squares and rectangles in different sizes,” explains Lewis. “The design minimizes dust production during the cutting process and thus ensures higher yields and a clean working environment.”

Minimal operating costs

As Pietrobon points out, another advantage of the GTC 400 lies in its very low operating, care and maintenance costs. “The GTC is controlled from a single on-board station, which is equipped with an intuitive touchscreen. This is also where the operator enters the cutting speed and width settings required for fast format changes. The GTC 400 has such a user-friendly design that very little training is required. After about a one-hour training session, all operators can work the cutter safely and efficiently as well as perform the handful of manual tasks, such as simple knife changes,” explains Pietrobon. “So, the principle of ‘one for all’ applies to more than the types of material the machine can process.”