Cut down to size

Atlas in Chinese achievement

During the recent Chinaplas 2003 exhibition in Beijing, Valmet Converting sold a seven metre wide Atlas primary slitter for BOPET film to the Yiwu East Sanxing Plastic Industrial Co. This is a new joint venture company located in Yiwu City, and due to start up towards the end of 2004. Atlas has been very successful in developing business for film slitters in China. Having sold its first machine there almost 20 years ago, the Group now has more than 300 machines installed in the country.

It recently supplied a 10m wide primary slitter to Anhui Guofeng Group, in Hefei, who will use the machine to process BOPP film. This will be only the fourth 10m primary film slitter in the world. Atlas also built the other three; one is installed in the US, the other two in Italy. Anhui Guofeng already has a 6.8m wide Atlas machine, which is currently processing some 15,000t/year of BOPP film.

The new 10m wide slitter will eventually process a further 35,000t/year for the company. The mill rolls will be loaded onto the slitter by an overhead crane, with the finished, slit reels being handled by a fully automated conveyor system.

Jenton to represent Stanford

US manufacturer Stanford Products has appointed Jenton International as its agent in the UK and Ireland. Stanford is celebrating its sixth decade as a supplier to the global converting industry. In the last 12 months the company has introduced four new machines: the Models 3038 and 738 HC slitter rewinders, and the 152 LT 142/152 JR Doctor Machines.

The 3038 and 738 HC slitters are aimed, respectively, at the wide and narrow web markets. Both have touchscreen controls, the latest AC vector drives, automated unloading options and an "operator friendly design".

The new Doctor Machines are claimed to be the most versatile salvage rewinders currently available. Augmenting Stanford's existing range of Doctor Machines, which covers web widths to 2,000mm and diameters to 1,250mm, these latest designs offer widths as narrow as 40mm, with diameters to 1,000mm and tensions from 22-260nm.

Italian show debut

Bielloni Castello unveiled its B 87 Autoslitter during the GEC show in Milan. With a top speed of 450m/min, the machine features automatic positioning of cutting knives and servo assisted unloading of the finished reels. It has a self centring shaftless unwinder and a computer with memory for up to 1,000 jobs.

Working width range is 1,000-1,800mm, parent reel diameter 1,000mm, and slit reels can be up to 600mm diameter. Minimum cutting width is 80mm (40mm on request).

Knife control accuracy assured

The latest Helios 'S' Series pneumatic knifeholders, available in three different size ranges, have self locking blade carriages on patented ball guides, said to ensure precision positioning on the rack and pinion guide rail for accurate slitting. When fitted with automatic knife setting, both top and bottom knives can be computer controlled, with up to 200 different jobs stored in the memory of the computer. When activated, up to 35 top and bottom knives will move to their new slitting positions in less than two minutes, saving hours on manual setting times, and with an accuracy not possible with manual setting, it is claimed.

A Helios system can be complemented by the use of Svecom differential rewind shafts. Manufactured to suit most makes of slitter, these are suitable for a wide range of materials and slit widths.

TS success with Deacro sale

TS Converting Equipment reports that its partnership with Canada's Deacro Industries (see November issue, News section) has already shown signs of success, with an order for a Deacro C24 received from the PSG Group, London. The machine will be located in a new cleanroom for the conversion of medical and food grade packaging films.

Deacro claims the C24 is the most popular centre winder in North America. It features automatic knife setting, core positioning, and reel removal and packaging.

"The European introduction to the Deacro range at the recent ICE exhibition in Munich was very encouraging," says Tim Self, director of TS Converting. "We received over 100 enquiries and expect further orders shortly".

TS (owner of Elite Cameron) has updated its website to reflect the full range of machines, ancillary equipment and services the company now provides. A new showroom will be completed early in 2004, providing a working facility for potential customers to take their material for trials and extended production runs.

Arms from Ashe are handy

New from Ashe is the Jade individual arm centre surface slitter. This three metre width machine is designed to operate at up to 1,000m/min and incorporates Profibus communication to local drives, and individual on-board AC digital drives with built-in PLC control for each arm. It also has dual arms which can run with one motor, reducing the tension range for thin gauge products.

Each arm has its own diameter measurement capability, enabling different cores or rewind diameters to be wound without adjustments. Horizontal movement on precision linear bearings controls lay-on pressure, and is not affected by roll weight. The lay-on pressure profile is also adjustable on screen and the Jade is configured for over or underwind, and for single arm operation, or alternatively may be coupled. For extra power up to four arms can be linked.

Team to handle tapes

Müller's narrow tape slitting machine and Sahm winders together are said to offer the solution for many specialist materials as well as reducing downtime. The two machines are run together from a central process control system. The Sahm parallel winder is suitable for a wide range of tapes as well as rubber bands, safety strips and flat conductors. Precision cross-winding machines are also available.

The Sahm machine controls tape tension individually using a pneumatically operated dancer arm, so that delicate tapes can be wound easily. The Müller machines enable the shaft to be moved, traversing in and out to reduce the tendency for very thin materials to flip over. Machines can be specified to suit customer requirements.

Better blade setting

A novel cartridge slitter system fitted as standard to Bar Graphic's Elite inspection rewinders enables the blades to be set by the operator without having to remove them from the machine. The company has also developed a rewind tension system claimed to give major benefits. Each unit is fitted with a pneumatic unwind brake and roll compensation arm to maintain the unwind tension throughout the roll. This is said to allow production of "excellent quality" rolls even on lightweight materials down to 20 micron, at speeds of up to 300m/min.

The modular design of the Elite range enables all facets of label inspection and conversion to be customized to individual requirements. A popular addition is matrix and missing label detection, which can be supplied as a five or 10-lane system. When a missing label or matrix is detected, the machine will slow to a controlled stop, leaving it on the adjustable splice table. A 16in inspection slitter rewinder with web advance arm has been introduced to cater for the growing trend towards wider web converting.

System sets knives automatically

Recently, a new automatic knife setting system developed by Parkland International was supplied on a new centre surface slitter with over 100 knives. A pick and place mechanism with laser measurement moves the shear knives, razor blade or crush cut holders. A knife positioning carriage runs on rails on the main steel crossbeam and is positioned accurately using a servo controlled ballscrew drive.

Knives not needed for a particular set-up are parked at the side of the machine. Dual action systems can be positioned simultaneously while the web is still in place, reducing machine downtime. Slit widths are set by the operator using a menu driven touchscreen.

The system can be disabled to allow manual positioning of knives for cleaning or removal. and may be supplied as original equipment or retrofitted to existing slitters with minimum modification.

Five for foil

Together with sales and project management company Megapak, Euromac has supplied five slitter rewinders for the new Alcan Packaging factory in Berlin, which started operations in July. The machines are used to convert paper, foil and metallized paper for cigarette inner liner applications. They feature automatic application of splicing tapes directly after rewind, either from above or below the web, and fully automatic positioning of 28 top and bottom knives.

Trend to traverse is on the increase

According to Independent Machine Co, the growth of slitting and traverse winding systems for most materials is steadily increasing due to the demand for the traverse wound spool. These spools can accommodate miles of material in a single package allowing for longer production runs and less operator handling.

IMC's slitting and spooling systems feature an interchangeable "drop-in" slitting head (shear, score or razor) and the Smartwinder-2000 modular traverse winding cube. They also have programmable touchscreen controls with recipe storage to manage all traverse functions and provide a variety of winding patterns. Modular add-on winding cubes allow for future expansion, when required.

Surface drive at low cost

Contech says its new surface driven rewinder offers the low/high tension flexibility of a standard shaft driven machine at a fraction of the cost. It is also claimed to reduce shaft related workplace injuries and speed roll changes. Compact and portable, the new machine features low tension brake control for gentle handling of material. Options include an end-of-roll sensor and a razor slitting capability.

Contech will design and engineer surface driven rewinders to customer's exact specifications.

Machine is suited to smaller metallizers

New from Galileo is the Optislit 2510, a machine suitable for small to medium size metallizers, converters and producers of speciality films. It has a twin-shaft configuration and can accommodate rolls of up to 2.5m wide and 1.0m diameter. Capable of full width rewinding as well as slitting rolls as narrow as 3in, it features a stand-alone unwinder with roll loading capabilities by crane or from pallet, edge guide control and a roll self centring device.

Common to all Galileo metallized film slitters is the centre wind mode with peripheral lay-on rollers controlling the hardness of the slit rolls. Tension control is by means of an independent motor on each shaft, as well as through clutches that are especially suitable for rewinding narrow width rolls.

High volume

Rotomac agent Isopak is promoting the RTC 125 high speed rewinder in the UK. This model is said to be ideal for rewinding household and catering rolls of foil, film and paper. It has offers fully electronic clutch control from the main control panel for easy adjustment for different materials.

The RTC 125 can accept mother reels of up to 1,000mm diameter and run foil at up to 700m/min. Two models handle different roll widths.