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ICE Europe 2015 – our review

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Overwhelming interest in the X6 Slitter at ICE Europe 2015

This year’s International Converting Exhibition (ICE) in Munich appeared to be the best-attended ICE exhibition to date, both in terms of delegates and exhibitors. Here at Universal Converting Equipment, we decided to book a larger stand, and to take more machinery than in previous years. This was a decision that paid off. The two main machines on the stand were both sold with other orders placed at the exhibition.

We were overwhelmed by the level of interest in our Universal X6 Slitter. The machine we took was configured to showcase the most popular options, as chosen by our customers. The X6 was loaded with a BOPP jumbo roll and features like automatic knife setting proved popular with the large crowds who gathered to watch the regular demonstrations. Despite having eight salespeople on the stand, there were times when everyone was busy and we could not speak to all the people coming onto the stand.

Universal Converting Equipment stand at ICE Europe 2015

In addition to the slitter rewinder we also exhibited a hot melt adhesive coating station. There were a number of other hot melt system suppliers at ICE, but several delegates mentioned to us that we appeared to the be the only exhibitor who could provide the coating equipment (heads, hoses and tanks) in addition to designing and building the control systems and complete machines.

The Universal CCA Automatic Core Cutter on our stand generated a lot of enquiries, as did the RT2 roll handling trolley. One customer was so impressed with the Automatic Core Cutter that he bought one on the spot, just a short while after signing on the dotted line for the Universal X6 slitter also on the stand.

ICE Europe is well-established as a great opportunity to network with industry colleagues, and this proved to us yet again how substantially important the Universal X6 is for converters of flexible packaging, as well as for companies slitting papers, label stock and hot stamping foils.

Universal Converting Equipment at ICE Europe 2015

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ICE Europe 2015Universal Converting Equipment will be exhibiting at ICE Europe 2015 in
hall A6, stand 523.

The ‘star’ of the stand will be the Universal X6 Slitter Rewinder, a high performance slitter developed primarily for flexible packaging, but proving itself just as efficient and fast when processing a wide range of materials including hot stamping foils and aluminium foils. This popular machine can be easily integrated with laser perforation equipment and high-speed vision inspection systems.

Also on the stand will be an automatic core cutter and examples of hot melt adhesive coating and laminating equipment.

Staff on the stand will include Universal Converting Equipment’s Technical Director and new Sales Executive Mike Wilkinson, who has had many years experience in the converting industry.

 

Slitter - X6
The Universal X6 Slitter

 

Universal Converting Equipment appoint top slitter sales executive

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Mike Wilkinson with a Universal X6 SlitterUniversal Converting Equipment are pleased to announce the appointment of Mike Wilkinson as Sales Executive. Mike has a wealth of experience in the converting industry having worked in senior sales and general management roles for Titan, Atlas, Comexi and Kampf.

Commenting on the appointment, Alan Jones, Managing Director said, “Mike is one of the top salespeople in the industry. His experience and knowledge are second to none. He was responsible for Titan during its rapid growth phase and most recently he has worked for Kampf who are probably the largest worldwide supplier of slitting and rewinding machines. We have ambitious growth plans over the next three years and Mike will help us reach our targets.”

Mike Wilkinson added “When I first visited Universal, I was excited by the potential of their machine range and in particular, their X6 slitter rewinder. I could see the investment that has taken place particularly in the machine and control system design. It was good to see features being incorporated to simplify the operation and maintenance of the machines which others have talked about but Universal Converting Equipment has actually done. Although Universal has always had a reputation for high quality machines its sales effort has been limited. I intend to help Universal grow to be a major worldwide supplier of slitter rewinders.”
Universal Converting Equipment are a fast growing manufacturer of slitter rewinders, rewinding machines, hot melt coating equipment, core cutters and other ancillary systems used in the converting industry. These machines are sold globally. The Universal X6 slitter rewinder is a machine with a compact footprint that has proved particularly successful as a high performance yet cost effective slitting machine for slitting flexible materials. It incorporates automatic knife setting, core alignment, closed loop tension control, additional tension zone through slitting and constant geometry contact rollers to allow high speed operation, minimising changeover time, with consistent high quality output.

Universal Converting Equipment complete Phase 2 of their expansion strategy

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Slitter partsIn the last two years, Universal Converting Equipment has doubled its turnover. To support this turnover growth, Universal invested in additional manufacturing space, designers and assembly staff (Phase 1). However, Universal found that the business was being held back by the lack of capacity of its sub-contractors to meet their increased demands. In the last 12 months Universal undertook an ambitious plan to install its own machine shop so it could be self-sufficient in machined mechanical parts. This Phase 2 investment plan is now complete following the installation of £1m in CNC controlled machine tools. The investment has included a CNC mill for the manufacture of machine side-frames, a CNC lathe for production of rollers, PC controlled roller balancing equipment and a range of CNC machining centres for the manufacture of other parts. Special foundations were built for some of the equipment. For example, the large mill sits on a solid reinforced concrete base over 1000mm deep. Levelling the machine bed to the tolerances required took a specialist team over a week to achieve.

Commenting on the investment, Alan Jones, Managing Director of Universal Converting Equipment said “We have been using 3D CAD systems to design our machines for the last 10 years. We have now invested in CAM software systems so that the part drawings can be converted into files that can be downloaded directly into the CNC machine tools. This prevents errors caused with manually controlled machines and eliminates data entry mistakes. The CAM system ensures we have consistently high quality components with the minimum of downtime when new designs are entered. Since installing this equipment, we have changed the design of some components so that the machining time can be reduced resulting in cost savings that can be passed onto our customers. We have used our own resources to fund this investment without the need for borrowings, increasing the financial strength and stability of the company. We are now commencing Phase 3 to increase our global sales and support infrastructure.”

Universal Converting Equipment are a manufacturer of slitter rewinders, rewinding machines, hot melt coating equipment, core cutters and other ancillary systems used in the converting industry. These machines are sold globally. The Universal X6 slitter rewinder is a machine with a compact footprint that has proved particularly successful as a high performance yet cost effective slitting machine for slitting flexible materials. It incorporates automatic knife setting, core alignment, closed loop tension control, additional tension zone through slitting and constant geometry contact rollers to allow high speed operation, minimising changeover time, with consistent high quality output.

Lean Flexibles Install a High Performance Universal X6 Slitting Machine

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Slitter operatorsLean Flexibles are a fast growing supplier and contract slitter of flexible packaging materials based at Hinckley, UK. Lean offer short lead time supply of a range of materials including PET, OPP, PE, CPP and multi-layer laminates. In choosing the Universal X6 slitting machine, Lean needed a wider web machine which minimised job set up times, produced consistent high quality rolls and was able to run at high speed.

The Universal X6 machine is designed for processing flexible materials. A typical specification includes digital web guiding, automatic knife setting (Computaslit), additional tension zone through slitting, closed loop rewind tension control, constant geometry contact rollers, automatic core alignment (Computacore) and a running speed of 600m/min. The machine is designed to be simple to operate with a 22inch touch screen interface. A typical changeover, including setting 20 shear knives can take less than two minutes making the machine ideal for short run work. The integrated drive and control system offers precision and repeatability with extensive diagnostics including dynamic circuit diagrams. All this performance in a machine with a small footprint.

Commenting on the investment, Darren Beardsley, Technical Director of Lean Flexibles said “To achieve our business objectives, we needed productivity, consistency,reliability and the ability to process thin extensible films through to rigid APET films.The Universal X6 has met our requirements and more. Setting shear knives used to take two people to lift the cutter shaft out and back in and the knives would take a long time to set. Now we programme the next slit pattern whilst the machine is running. Once the machine stops, the knives are set faster than we can load a new parent roll into the machine. The additional tension zone through slitting has helped us achieve consistently good quality slit edges even when running low rewind tensions. During our acceptance trials at Universal, we tailored the machine to our specific requirements, ran a range of materials and saved the settings in the recipe system. With load cell measurement of rewind tensions we know that we can return to these settings and achieve exactly the same tension profile allowing us to run at 600m/min with confidence.”

Alan Jones, MD, Universal Converting Equipment added “Lean chose to spend more than they originally planned by investing in technology that will pay back for years to come. To compete in their markets they needed to minimise downtime and maximise running speed in the knowledge that rolls will always be good quality. This is what the Universal X6 has been designed to achieve year after year. Although the X6 incorporates a lot of technology, it is based on fundamental design principles – keep the web path as short as possible, use feedback devices to ensure the machine is doing exactly as required, make the structure rigid so alignment stays perfect and ensure the machine is easy to set up and operate. Load cell tension feedback, automatic knife positioning and core alignment dramatically reduces downtime and increases the time the machine is making money.”

Find out more about the X6 Flexible Packaging Slitter…

Find out more about Lean Flexibles…

Universal Converting Equipment expand

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Slitter machine running rolls Slitter, winder and hot melt coating equipment manufacturer grows into new premises.

Slitting and coating equipment manufacturer Universal Converting Equipment have announced they have purchased an additional 4000sq feet of manufacturing space adjoining their existing Ipswich-based facility.

“The additional spacewill be used to complement our existing production areas and also to house a 2000sq feet show / demo room that customers will be able to visit for trials.”

says Managing Director Dave Ward.