Slitter for insulation materials offers packaging multi tasking

Challenged to produce a single machine capable of converting a wide variety of specialized electrical insulation products, Dusenbery has designed a slitter claimed to be capable of handling materials ranging from 23 micron polyester film to heavyweight board laminates.

At one extreme, the Model 281 will slit and rewind very thin films from a web up to 2,050mm wide to minimum widths of 80mm at a speed of 400m/min. At the other, it generates powerful torque to unwind a jumbo roll weighing 1,600kg and slice through heavy, 1,000 micron board laminate.

The machine can rewind after slitting to the same 1,250mm diameter as the full parent roll and is also capable of log winding the 2,050mm wide web without slitting. Heavy rolls are unloaded onto a scissor lift trolley as the rewind mandrel is automatically withdrawn.

To cope with the variety of materials, two winding systems for 70, 76 and 152mm cores are built into the Model 281. It can either be run as a pure centrewind machine with minimum gap rewind to suit thicker materials or, for thin films, with the slit webs in contact with a driven winding drum. This also acts as a lay-on roll to exclude trapped air from the finished rolls.

To deal with the full range of materials, there is a semi automatic shear slitting system with female block knives mounted on an expanding airshaft. Male knife assemblies are adjusted manually using digital read-outs that ensure rapid and accurate positioning.

Although it has been built for one very specialized end user, says Dusenbery, the 281 also has much to offer to converters of paperboard and non wovens needing to cope with a range of materials.