Westport, Connecticut based JB Machinery won the Board Converting News/Corrugated Today/AICC Innovator of the Year Award, which was presented on Wednesday, August 11, during the third general session at SuperCorrExpo 2021 in Orlando, Florida.
Based on a majority of votes by SCE attendees, JB Machinery took home the Innovator of the Year Award for its innovative AutoWash Automatic Plate Washing system.
“It’s truly an honor to win this prestigious and coveted award,” said Warren Bird, President of JB Machinery. “Our focus is on helping converters maximize the productivity, quality and efficiency of their converting processes. Manually washing printing plates can take on average five to 10 minutes. Whether you’re doing it on the machine – after makeready or at the end of an order – or offline, you’re consuming 20 plus minutes of the crew’s time to wash plates on a four-color job.
“AutoWash allows us to automate this process and wash all plates simultaneously in less than four minutes. So, regardless of how many colors you’re running, all plates can be washed and ready for storage, or to run the order, in less time than it would take to wash a single plate.”
JB Machinery also won third place in the Innovator of the Year competition for its DigiFlex High Speed Imaging System. HP took second place for its PageWide C500 Top Feeder.