Winning over the stretch

UK based TS Converting Equipment, the manufacturer of slitter rewinders, manual and auto core cutters, coating and laminating machines, held an open house on March 4-6, 2008 for existing and potential customers to view the latest range of Elite Cameron machines.

The open house was supported by Valco Cincinnati, who supplies TS with hotmelt application equipment, and Parker SSD, one of the largest suppliers of drive and control equipment. Over 20 companies attended the event each day. “We were pleased with the number of visitors,” says Spencer Davies, the company’s sales manager.

The highlight of the show was the latest hotmelt coater which had been customized for a Polish converter, Interchemall, based in Warszawa. “The HM1000 slot die hotmelt coater is a compact, high performance machine that provides a very cost effective package for the production of all hotmelt tapes, labels and laminates,” says Tim Self, director of TS.

The configuration was specifically designed to process very stretchy open cell foams, with a driven nip and dancer system to ensure layflat, high quality laminates.

The customer visited TS to accept the machine the week prior to the open house. “They were very pleased with the machines performance and we were able to demonstrate coat weights from 8-100gsm within 1 per cent tolerance across the full 1,600mm width,” says Tim Self.

The standard specification includes Valco hotmelt tank, heated hose and slot die, digital SSD AC vector drives, chiller, dual guided unwinds, rewind, automatic tension control, colour touchscreen controls and job memory.

Modular laminator

Another machine on display was a roll and sheet laminator. “This machine is also unique in concept, modular in design with facilities for single and double sided lamination in one pass,” explains Tim Self. The unit can be configured to laminate self-adhesive tapes to sheets or continuous web (roll fed). The tension control is said to ensure high quality layflat laminates on delicate or stretchy materials such as foams and non-wovens.

“This machine is also destined for Poland”, says Tim Self “Our customer is looking to produce a range of laminates in roll and sheet form. This machine will enable them to switch between formats and materials within minutes.”

Low cost slitter

TS also demonstrated its C800 low cost slitter, which was running a variety of materials such as thin packaging films (BOPP and PET), self-adhesive tapes and labelstock.

The customer, Herma Self Adhesive Materials, inspected the machine prior to the open house. “The machine was competitively priced and extremely versatile,” says Colin Phillips, director of Herma, “We purchased it to process our narrow web, over-laminating films and standard, wide web label production, two extreme products on the same machine.”

Tim Self points out: “The C range of slitting machines have been designed to provide exceptional value and are available on a short delivery, covered by the company’s comprehensive warranty and after-sales service. The compact, robust machines are capable of slitting down to very narrow widths as the slitting section is mounted very close to the rewind section.”

The C800 slitter is said to be suitable for all substrates such as flexible packaging films, adhesive tapes, laminates, filtration media, rubber and textiles. The machine has a web width of 1,600mm with 250-800mm rewind diameter option. The specification includes edge/line guide, single or two-motor digital SSD drive, auto tension control, splice table, razor, shear and crush slitting, lay-on rolls, integrated roll handling, pneumatic differential rewind shafts, and laser core and knife positioning.

Auto core cutters

During the open house, TS also displayed its auto core cutter. A video presentation showed a recent installation of the CC300, which is capable of running without an operator, communicating with the paper mill MRP system, automatically printing, cutting and transporting the cores to the slitting machines on demand.

“The CC100A auto core cutter we displayed incorporates the latest tube cutting technology, providing customers with quality cut cores, accurate in length, effortlessly, as and when required in total safety,” says Tim Self.