ASK THE EXPERTS: Jade: the jewel in the crown

Ashe Converting Equipment is a family run converting equipment manufacturer that was first established in Ipswich, UK, in 1976, and the manufacturing HQ is still based there. The company specialises in the manufacture and development of slitting and rewinding equipment, and custom systems are a speciality. Ashe has its own in-house engineering, development/design and manufacturing team building state-of-the-art equipment containing at least 75% in-house technology. The company’s major experience base is in electronic drives and motor control systems.

The company’s Jade series of slitters and rewinders was developed after considerable research. During the initial development phase of the Jade design, Ashe approached as many different people as it could and asked them to identify the main problems of the existing type of machine. The results were commonly set-up time, reliability of different parts of the machine and initial costs.

According to Mr Fordham: “We set about eliminating all the issues the customers were unhappy with and produced the new concepts in the Jade series. As an example, the existing equipment used plugs and sockets and trailing electrical leads (which can get pulled out) to connect the rewind arms to the control system. This mean that the connections have to include all of the switches, power, signal and control circuits for each arm – with some machines having 20-arm assemblies, so you can see the issues with reliability. The Jade machine uses on-board drive and built-in PLC processing for each arm with switches and inputs being connected into an on-board applications module. The supply for the arms uses linear bus rails, permanently connected with no trailing leads. So the whole assembly is self-contained and eliminates the durability issues seen with other designs.”

Mr Fordham outlined the most important aspects of slitting and what a good machine should provide. Clearly the most important part is the slitting – knife type, quality, geometry and ease of adjustment are the major contributors to the slitting process. Often, the quality of the razor or male knife is overlooked in favour of cost, to the detriment of the product slit edge quality, Mr Fordham explained. “The whole structure, web path, tension control and rewind process is designed around the slitting process and it helps to think of the whole machine as a giant knifeholder for slitting the product.”

The next most important aspect is the tension control. This affects slitting, rewind quality, web tracking through the machine and lots of other dynamic effects. “Consider that when the machine accelerates, all the rollers, mother roll and slit rewind rolls are affecting the tension; imagine that the rollers are not driven and try to accelerate several hundred kilos of rollers up to a 1,000rev/min. The issue is just as important during the slowing down process: all the time we are controlling this to rewind the materials at low tensions, removal of air entrainment, and edge profiles accurate to within tens of microns.”

With its advanced electronic controls, automated features and easy configuration for all applications, Mr Fordham explained the principles behind the operation of the Jade. “The machine has been designed to operate in several different winding principles, making it extremely versatile. The principal methods of operation are centre wind, surface wind, and centre surface winding combined. The Jade achieves this using an unconventional style of rewind arm that replicates the winding conditions from conventional machines without the cumbersome lay-on rollers needed for all the other styles of machines. A vacuum drive roller isolates the unwind tension and twin, individually driven surface drive rollers transport the tension controlled web directly to the rewind stations.”

Clearly, there are a number of operational, reliability and performance gains with the Jade style of machine. Primary film producers are typical of the user for this type of machine although some converters also use Jade machines for processing printed and laminated products. According to Mr Fordham, the operational diversity of the Jade is so wide it is easier to give the two extremes and assume everything in between is catered for. It can process 2,500 micron PVC down to 3 micron capacitor film, and 400g/m² coated paper down to 20g/m2 plain paper, with plain, printed, and laminating going on between these ranges. Asked what are the most important selling points of the Jade, Mr Fordham replied: “Quality of rewind rolls produced – clean operation with no hydraulics; ease of use and reliability; low capital outlay; rapid slit width changes; versatility – Ashe has a Jade slitting both 1,500 micron PVC, and 30 micron stretch film, on the same machine.