HCI advances smart converting for flexible packaging

HCI Converting Equipment Co., Ltd. marks its presence at TaipeiPLAS 2026 with its latest solution – the FSE-1300-2 Smart Reversible Rewinding & Inspection Machine. Terence Chen, Sales Director of HCI Converting Equipment Co., Ltd. shares with International Plastics News for Asia how flexible packaging manufacturers can benefit from this integrated system. 

Mr. Terence Chen, Sales Director, HCI Converting Equipment Co., Ltd.

What are the innovations that you are highlighting at TaipeiPLas? Can you please provide a brief description on your main exhibit and its advantages to your target market?

Mr. Chen: Our main innovation at TaipeiPLAS 2026 is the FSE-1300-2 Smart Reversible Rewinding & Inspection Machine, integrated with the camera-based inspection system. The system combines high-precision inspection, rewinding, defect detection and production data management into one integrated solution. The vision system continuously monitors the material during production, identifying defects such as printing errors, foreign particles, scratches, color variations and other quality issues, while the FSE-1300-2 provides stable and precise rewinding in both forward and reverse directions.

More importantly, the system is designed not only to detect defects, but also to transform inspection results into structured quality data. Through PLC-based control and integration with MES/ERP systems, inspection information can be collected, organized and stored in a quality database, creating a foundation for traceability and further smart-manufacturing applications.

For flexible packaging manufacturers, this solution helps reduce reliance on manual inspection, improve inspection accuracy and production efficiency, and provide more consistent quality control for high-speed production lines.

What market trends encouraged you to develop this product? What are R&D efforts and other product development programs that you have undertaken to be able to launch this product?

Mr. Chen: The rapid development of the flexible packaging, high-performance film, food packaging, medical packaging and electronic-material markets has created increasingly demanding requirements for product quality, production efficiency and traceability.

At the same time, manufacturers are facing labor shortages and rising labor costs. Traditional manual inspection is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain at high production speeds, while customers are demanding more reliable quality control and complete production records.

These trends encouraged HCI to move from conventional inspection and rewinding toward intelligent, data-driven inspection solutions.

Our R&D efforts have focused on integrating mechanical engineering, automatic control, machine vision and production-data management. We have continuously improved the FSE series in areas such as tension control, rewinding stability, PLC control, automatic operation and inspection integration.

For the TaipeiPLAS 2026 exhibit, we further integrated the FSE-1300-2 with the FUTEC camera inspection system and developed an architecture that enables inspection results to be connected with PLC, MES, ERP and a cloud-based quality database.

This development represents an important step in HCI’s transition from equipment manufacturing toward providing integrated smart-converting and quality-management solutions.

What is your target industry sector or application for this product? What specific demands from this sector do you intend to meet with your product?

Mr. Chen: The FSE-1300-2 is primarily targeted at manufacturers in flexible packaging, printed films, food packaging, medical packaging, electronic materials and other high-value film applications where product quality and traceability are critical.

These industries require high-speed production while maintaining consistent quality. Typical challenges include printing defects, foreign particles, scratches, color variations, coating defects and other abnormalities that can be difficult to identify through manual inspection.

Our solution is designed to meet several key requirements: higher inspection accuracy through automated camera-based inspection; reduced dependence on manual inspection, helping manufacturers address labor shortages; stable and efficient rewinding for high-speed production; real-time defect identification and quality monitoring during production; quality traceability, by converting inspection results into structured production data; and digital integration, allowing quality information to be connected with MES, ERP and centralized databases.

Ultimately, our goal is not simply to provide an inspection machine, but to help manufacturers build a more intelligent, connected and data-driven quality-control process. By establishing and integrating quality data at the production stage, manufacturers can move toward Industry 4.0 and achieve greater production efficiency, consistency and traceability.

HCI Converting Equipment Co., Ltd.

Tel. no.: +886 4 23590632

Fax no.: +886 4 23590710

E-mail: info@hci-tw.com.tw

Website: www.hci.cc

Booth: K1302