Featured Stories
-
Meeting the Demands of Medical Grade Labels
High-performance Materials Key in Demanding Industries -
Static Control for Pouch, Bag and Label Lines
Solving Pouch Opening Failures and Preventing Stack Bricks -
News | New Products
-
Capstone Partners Reports: Portfolio Realignment and Sustainability Remains Top of Mind for Packaging M&A
Capstone Partners, a leading middle market investment banking firm, released its November 2024 Packaging Industry Update
-
September 2024 US Cutting Tool Orders Total $188.7 Million, Up 0.7% Year-to-Date
Shipments of cutting tools, measured by the Cutting Tool Market
-
How to Prevent Fogging in Plastics?
Have you ever wondered why the plastic cover on your food or your car's windshield fogs up on a humid day, making it difficult to see through?
-
Pack-Smart Inc. Celebrates 25 Years of Packaging, Print Innovation
Pack-Smart Inc., a global leader in designing and manufacturing advanced automated solutions for digital print finishing and specialty packaging, celebrates its 25th anniversary milestone.
-
Print & Graphics Scholarship Foundation announces 2024/25 Academic Scholarships
The Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF), a nonprofit organization working to build the future workforce of the graphic communications industry through educational scholarships
-
Keypoint Intelligence Publishes 2023-2028 Outlook for the Wide Format Printing Market
Keypoint Intelligence, the leading provider of data-driven insights for the digital imaging industry, has released its latest report: Wide Format Print Forecast: 2023-2028.
-
PAC Strapping Products Introduces STRAPBLASTERā¢ Technology for Cleaning Debris Buildup for Automated Strapping Machines
PAC Strapping Products, a leader in the strapping and packaging industry, is proud to introduce its latest innovation in strapping technology—STRAPBLASTER™ Technology.
Expert Advice
Workhorse Winders Do More Than Ever Before
- Published: December 01, 2001, By Claudia Hine, Senior Editor
Winding technology has gone way beyond what it was in the '90s, says Bruce Butler, VP of sales at Independent Machine Co., Fairfield, NJ. “The entire system is just way more sophisticated this year than it was even two years ago.”
The most significant changes include new control systems that use servo drives and PLC units as a means of controlling speed and machine sequencing functions, explains Don Rush, national sales manager at Elsner Engineering Works, Hanover, PA. “The ease of making adjustments using the new controls really makes the converter's life easier, as does the ability to store the memory of a particular run for a particular product and recall it at a later date for a repeat performance.”
“Everything is electronic and much more quantifiable,” adds Butler. Data acquisition capabilities allow operators to store speed and tension parameters for a particular job. “It takes the art out of the process. You store the recipes and then you get consistency time after time for that particular product.”
More sophisticated drive systems also mean the tension control is much better, he adds.
The desire for better core starts is increasing because products are getting more expensive, so waste reduction is a big factor, says Rich McCarthy, VP at New Era Converting Machinery, Paterson, NJ. “Today there's a greater variety of transfer technologies and cut types. Now it's common to use shear cutoffs, traversing knife cutoffs, and enveloping cutoff systems. There are various technologies available for no fold-over and no tape transfers. Some of these technologies have been around for some time, but they're being applied more often and at higher speeds. Converters want to handle difficult materials more automatically and at higher speeds.”
When writing specs for new equipment, McCarthy recommends converters consider what materials they might run in the future, because the ability to handle other materials can be built into a machine from the start, or the ability to modify it in the future can be built in. “If you've got a product that doesn't need a lay-on roll, and you build a machine without it or without provisions to add one, you might be cutting off your future,” he warns. “You can buy a machine that does gap winding, but you design it so it can do gap winding and pack winding.”
Butler cautions, however, converters must work with the OEM when writing specs. Otherwise, he says, “When you're trying to build a machine to do everything, you have to make it so generic it's not going to do anything great.”
For winding material that's subject to wrinkling, McCarthy says constant geometry winding really minimizes or eliminates the rewinding challenge of wrinkle formation just prior to the transfer. “Constant geometry means there are two sets of pack or gap rolls, one dedicated to each winding position, and they rotate with the turret,” he explains. “That means that the geometry of the web path leading to the winding roll stays constant through the entire cycle and doesn't get lost during the transfer. It gives you a better roll.”
Down the road, Rush predicts, winder manufacturers will improve their current lines even more, offering equipment with controls that are more operator friendly than they are today and that run at higher speeds than currently available.
That workhorse winder has become a thoroughbred.