Converting’s coolest show

The 6th International Converting Exhibition – ICE Europe will host some 300 exhibitors from 17 countries, occupying an 8,000m² area in the four halls of the MOC venue. They will be showing machinery and services for coating and laminating, treating, drying and curing, slitting and rewinding, finishing, control, and test and measurement. The Converting Today editorial and sales teams will be based on stand 3G11, in Hall 3.

Among the exhibitors, Absolute Engineering (Hall 2, stand 2H13) will be showcasing two products: the Absolute 2G woven carbon fibre chamber and the Uniblade, a single-blade system with the chamber’s features of carbon fibre, quick blade change and rapid clean.

Manufacturer of machine knives and converting blades Durham-Duplex (Hall 1, stand 1X01) is to present the Endurium range of high performance, low cost slitting blades alongside traditional, coated, zirconia ceramic and tungsten carbide blades. The company also manufactures web cut-off blades, circular knives, flying knives, straight and serrated/toothed packaging knives, and crush/core cutters, as well as pelletisers and granulators.

Sharing the Fraunhofer Institute stand (Hall 2, stand 2M01), will be the European Metallizers Association (EMA), which provides access to industry data, a forum for technical discussion, networking opportunities and PR through its website and committees. At ICE, it invites all interested parties and potential members to meet and discuss its activities personally.

Ultra-barrier films

New developments from the Fraunhofer IVV’s (Hall 2, stand 2M01) Functional Materials business unit concern in particular functional films with effective barriers against oxygen and water vapour, modification of the surface properties, and customisation of the mechanical properties.

Within the Fraunhofer Alliance for Polymer Surfaces (POLO), the Fraunhofer IVV is collaborating with six other Fraunhofer Institutes on the development of ultra barrier films for demanding technical applications such as encapsulation materials for flexible displays based on liquid crystals (LCDs), inorganic emitters (LEDs) and organic emitters (OLEDs), and for flexible organic solar cells. ‘Very promising’ R&D results have already been reported.

Under the 7th European Framework Programme, work is currently being carried out on the ‘Wheylayer’ project. The goal is to replace polymer layers in packaging with a new material containing whey protein. This is said to provide an excellent barrier against oxygen and moisture, and the antimicrobial compounds that are naturally present in whey prolong the shelf life of food products. Initial results will be presented on the Fraunhofer IVV stand in Munich.

Among the novelties to be shown by Fife-Tidland (Hall 2, stand 2M19) are the SE-46A digital pattern and line sensor, able to track webs according to a repeated printed pattern; the SE-45 TruWide wide web ultrasonic sensor, to detect multiple webs simultaneously; and the eKnifeholder, which is electronically driven and features fully automatic set-up.

Improved curing

A new reflector design for GEW’s (Hall 2, stand 2J05) range of UV curing systems, the C3 cartridge will replace the company’s existing XC ‘extreme cure’ system used on its VCP and eCP product platforms. As with the XC, the C3 is also said to deliver a fully focused UV output to maximise the UV energy input into the ink.

Both reflector profiles were designed using ray tracing, a computerised modelling program to simulate the effects of different reflector geometries and maximise the amount of UV energy reaching the ink. GEW says this enables its latest reflectors to be ’in the region of 25-30% more efficient than others’. However, the C3 also benefits from a number of improvements to its heat management capabilities. This has been a major step forward in terms of its versatility and the range of substrates that can effectively be processed, the company states.

Visitors to the Harris & Bruno stand (Hall 4, stand 4A12) will learn about the company’s latest developments in chambered doctor blade systems for flexo, coating and offset applications. Also appearing in this display will be ink and coating pump units with a fully automated wash-up system.

The Inometa Group (Hall 2, stand 2K25) will present web guide rollers made from CFRP (carbon fibre reinforced plastics) and aluminium, used for processing high quality papers and foils. They are said to feature defined surface textures, durable anti-stick and excellent transport characteristics. High quality coatings provide for electrical and thermal insulation and conductivity. The ‘extremely hard and wear resistant’ HighQ surfaces are said to be suitable for very sensitive substrates.

New products to be featured by AB Kelva (Hall 1, stand 1R12), include shafts, lifts and anti-static equipment. The Swedish company has a wide range of both contact and non-contact web cleaners. It has just bought the assets and brands of Dutch web cleaning and filter system specialist Emcebee Industrial Technologies, developer of the Cleanflow, a system that reduces consumption of cleaning solutions. Kelva also represents Flint Group Printing Plates.

Inspection and control

The Ox-Tran Model 1/50 ‘easy-to-use’ oxygen transmission rate (OTR) analyser developed by Mocon is to be launched by Paul Lippke Handels (Hall 2, stand 2K11). The unit is designed for simple ‘out-of-the box’ user installation and its new technology includes a patent pending coulometric method for absolute readings, said to eliminate the need to calibrate. Frequency modulation RH control is said to provide faster and automatic relative humidity controls - a feature which allows ‘real-life’ testing conditions.

The instrument’s small footprint requires minimum bench space, and operator input is simplified with screen prompts, displayed on the easy-to-read screens in any of five languages. Built-in (fault tolerant) safety systems prevent sensor damage and protect against over or under pressure, or thermo runaway.

The Ox-Tran Model 1/50 is designed to give companies who were previously unable to justify the expenditure, the ability to perform in-house permeation analysis with an ‘affordable, robust, easy to use, fault tolerant, quality test instrument’. It will test medium-to-low barrier film within the range of 0.1-200 cm³/m² day and less than 1.7mm thick. It can also test coated paperboard.

OCS Optical Control Systems (Hall 2, stand 2N13) specialises in optical quality control for the plastics industry. It claims to have more than 1,000 inspection systems installed worldwide. At the show, high speed inspection of extrusion coated films will be demonstrated live on a Kampf Roll Doctor at 400m/min.

With live demonstrations, Matho Konstruktion & Maschinenbau (Hall 1, stand 1V05) says it will show the many possibilities a modern waste handling system offers the converting industry. The company’s cutting units and waste handling machines have a modular concept that allows systems to be tailored exactly to meet customer needs.

Adhesives

Innovations in speciality adhesives for protective applications will be presented by Collano (Hall 2, stand 2H01). The focus will be on adhesives that are ‘remarkably resistant to high and low temperatures as well as chemicals’. Applications include money transport bags, security labels, high performance adhesive tapes and smart cards.

Collano adhesives are used when special requirements must be fulfilled. The most recent developments include a hotmelt that is said to exhibit particularly strong adhesion on substrates that are difficult to bond.

Nordson (Hall 3, stand 3C11) is to display a special version of the TrueCoat adhesive applicator with roller bar nozzle for optimising surface qualities on transparent films. These units are available in standard application widths up to 720mm or as customised specials up to 1,700mm.

TrueCoat systems are designed for continuous applications and cross-web distribution. The special quick-release nozzle can be changed from slot to roller bar format within a few minutes. Features such as quick-exchange filters (bayonet release) and flange design solenoids - together with the quick exchange nozzle – are said to reduce scheduled downtimes by about 50%. The compact design of the nozzle and the body support permit easy integration into narrow machine areas, according to Nordson.

Handling systems

Flexpack Automation )Hall 4, stand 4C34) specialises in the fully automated handling of finished rolls of paper and flexible packaging from the converting line. Rolls of any size are transported from the slitting rewinding machines on a conveyor to be weighed, labelled and wrapped in PE film. Finally, a 6-axis industrial robot equipped with a special gripper places them on the pallet. This process is said to take just 30sec, for any roll weight from 1-800kg. The company will exhibit some parts of the FlexPack automatic roll handling and converting line, and invites interested visitors to conduct trials at its site in Switzerland.

Materials handling systems for paper roll movement, wrapping and conveying, and automatic core cutters are the speciality of Rolpex (Hall 4, stand 4G14). It also supplies consumable products such as tungsten carbide slitting knives, steel cross-cut knives and food grade lubrication. The company will be exhibiting and demonstrating two battery powered roll movers manufactured by US company Appleton.

MIS systems

On the theurer.com stand (Hall 4, stand 4F18), the MIS-System C3 Labelling & Packaging will be presented. This specialised business management software for flexible packaging material printers covers all areas of a business, including estimating, order processing, CRM, production planning, job costing and logistics.

The estimating module provides completely customisable estimating templates for labels and flexible packaging materials. Based on sales-relevant characteristics, the software determines the technical suitability of specific machines, as well as the most cost efficient method of production per quantity.

The latest optimisation functions in the graphical scheduling board, include the Job-Sequence Optimisation to reduce makeready times drastically. For planning, any individual criteria can be used, such as material and web width, colour system, special colours and printing cylinders. W-Lan mobile devices are provided for shopfloor data collection and inventory management. Data can be captured with these mobile devices.