Turrets taken

A number of automatic turret winders from Deacro have been supplied to UK based flexible packaging companies, including Amcor, Novelis, Printpack, Sonoco Flexible Packaging, and Bemis Curwood.

“These machines run continuously with very little operator intervention,” claims Tim Self, director of Deacro's UK partner, TS Converting Equipment. “Several have been supplied with an integrated packaging line which weighs, wraps, labels and palletizes the reels automatically”

The 1,600mm wide machines are built in Canada and are installed and commissioned by TS trained engineers for local support. The packaging lines are designed and supplied locally to suit customer's individual requirements with varying degrees of automation.

TS also recently installed one of its own Elite Cameron CS600 duplex centre surface slitters locally. “This has to be the closest customer we have supplied,” remarks Tim Self. The customer, John Heathcoat & Co, is based in Tiverton, 15min from the TS base in Taunton. The machine has been specified to run “very stretchy” textiles which are used in the manufacture of timing belts.

“Our product is extremely difficult to handle as the finished reel profile has to be like a record, but wound with very little tension,” explains Heathcoat's Andy Bell. “The Elite Cameron slitter has enabled us to guarantee reel quality to our customers and provide them on much shorter lead time.”

This 1,600mm wide machine slits down to 12mm and has a rewind diameter of 610mm. Set-up time for knives and cores is said to be reduced dramatically with the Elite Cameron Lazerset system. Web tension is controlled precisely, says TS, with a driven unwind and dancer using the latest SSD digital drives and touchscreen controls.

TS reports a record sales year with many new slitters supplied to the medical, flexible packaging and adhesive tape industries. “We have noticed a substantial increase in demand for our ancillary products which reduce downtime on slitters” reveals sales manager Spencer Davies. “We have supplied a large quantity of our differential rewind shafts and Lazerset systems for retrofit to other manufacturers' machines”.