How Can a Converter Evaluate the Productivity and ROI Benefits of Martin Automatic Technology?

Updated

Evaluate Martin Automatic technology by tying each claimed benefit to a measurable change on your own line: roll-change time, manual handling effort, and saleable output per shift. The company's own customer testimonials point to three evaluation anchors — faster roll changes, less physical effort, and a fast return on investment — but the numbers only become meaningful when you apply them to your roll diameters, material weight, and change frequency. Use the steps below to build that case before committing capital.

Start With Your Current Roll-Change Baseline

Before looking at any equipment, document what a manual change actually costs you. The Peters GmbH testimonial on martinauto.com gives a concrete reference point: 60" diameter, 400-micron paper rolls that are "heavy and slow to manipulate," with typically two changes per hour at about 10 minutes each when done manually. That is roughly 20 minutes of lost running time per hour in that scenario.

Build the same picture for your operation:

  • Roll diameter and weight — larger, heavier rolls take longer to maneuver and raise injury risk.
  • Changes per hour or per shift — the more frequent the change, the larger the cumulative time loss.
  • Minutes per manual change — time the full cycle, including lifting, positioning, and restart.
  • Material type — heavy paper, film, and label stock behave differently and affect handling difficulty.

Multiply changes per shift by minutes per change to get your current downtime figure. That number is the denominator for every ROI comparison that follows.

Map Each Benefit Claim to a Metric You Can Verify

The testimonials on the site describe outcomes in general terms. Convert them into things you can measure on a trial or reference installation.

Claim from customer testimonials What to measure Why it matters
"Improving productivity and showing a fast ROI" (Barthel Group) Output per shift before vs. after; payback period in months Confirms the investment case in your own volume terms
"Higher volume of saleable product with less physical effort" (Barthel Group) Saleable units per operator hour; reported fatigue and handling incidents Captures the labor and quality side, not just speed
Manual changes of ~10 minutes each, two per hour (Peters GmbH) Your own change time vs. automated non-stop running Quantifies recovered running time
"Fully automated roll handling for continuous running" in smaller environments (MBSC and STR, per Dušan Prevrátil) Whether compact footprint fits your floor space Checks that automation suits a smaller production setup

The Barthel quote is especially useful for framing: it links ROI to both throughput and team motivation, so your evaluation should include operator workload, not only machine speed.

Match the Equipment to Your Production Profile

Martin Automatic's featured products on the site are the MBS Butt Splicer, the LRD Automatic Transfer Rewind, and the ECP Lap Splicer. Recent installations show the range of applications:

  • Nordvalls Etikett (six production sites across northern Europe) has consistently chosen Martin unwind/splice technology for its printing presses to improve production efficiency.
  • Römer Etikett installed a Martin MBS Automatic Butt Splicer in Germany as part of a productivity investment plan.
  • Desmedt Labels in Belgium was the first to install a Mark Andy digital hybrid press fitted with Martin non-stop unwind/splice technology.

Use these as reference profiles: a multi-site label converter, a single-site productivity upgrade, and a digital hybrid press integration. Ask which profile most resembles your press type, web width, and run lengths, then request references from that segment.

Run the Payback Calculation

With your baseline in hand, the ROI question becomes arithmetic:

  1. Recovered time per shift = (manual minutes per change − automated change time) × changes per shift.
  2. Recovered output = recovered time × your line's output rate.
  3. Value of recovered output = recovered output × contribution margin per unit.
  4. Payback period = equipment cost ÷ value recovered per month.

Add the labor side separately: reduced physical handling can lower fatigue-related errors and free operators for other tasks, which the Barthel testimonial frames as a motivational gain. Keep that as a qualitative benefit unless you can attach a cost to it.

Questions to Put to Martin Before You Decide

  • Which splicer or rewind model matches my roll diameter, material, and change frequency?
  • Can you provide a reference installation with a similar press and web width?
  • What is the expected change-cycle time for my material spec?
  • How does the compact MBSC/STR range compare with the MBS for a smaller production environment?

The site offers a full product brochure download and a "Browse All" featured-products section, which are the right starting points for model specifications. Pricing is not published on the pages reviewed, so treat cost and payback figures as items to confirm directly with the company rather than assumptions.