slitter

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.

Reducing energy consumption and costs with a Slitter Rewinder

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Efficient slittingIndustrial machinery has a reputation for being noisy and it’s taken for granted that ear protection needs to be worn when working with very large machines, but how often have you walked past a noisy machine only to realise it doesn’t appear to be actually doing anything? The energy consumption of large processing, printing, packaging and converting facilities can be so large that it puts a dent in a company’s bottom line, and by reducing energy consumption companies are not only helping protect the environment they are also protecting their profitability.

Most companies would love to be able to claim they are actively reducing their energy usage, but making these claims a reality can be a big challenge, especially in a large company with an established culture of process routine (which in themselves are by no means a negative effort). There are very easy ways in which companies can instantly reduce their energy usage, by powering down inactive machines between jobs (for example), but such simplistic moves can be very low impact and the resulting dent in productivity can be damaging to profitability.

If companies can’t make big savings by changing the way they work maybe they can actively reduce their energy usage by carefully choosing the tools they work with. Energy efficient slitter rewinders can reduce energy usage by powering down components not being used for some jobs, but there are more ways that the machinery manufacturers can fundamentally reduce energy usage, and most start on the drawing board.

Here are Universal Converting Equipment we design the majority of our slitters and winders to use the brake energy from the unwind shaft to power the rewind shaft, thereby drastically reducing the overall energy consumption of our machinery. This is just one example of the innovative ways Slitter Rewinders are designed and built at a controls level and how these ideas can reduce your energy costs, there are also many mechanical ways that waste can be reduced.

It may seem unusual to discuss slitter rewinders without talking about the materials they process, and by carefully handling and processing the material web as it is processed further savings can be made. Material waste can be reduced by using a machine designed to have a very short web path, this reduces the amount of material wasted when setting the machine up for each job. Ensuring that knives and cores are accurately set up (perhaps with automated systems) greatly reduces the amount of material that is spoilt, and therefore wasted. Reducing energy consumption with your Slitter Rewinder requires a holistic approach.

Slitter Rewinders designed with closed tension control, knife alignment, laser core alignment and web-guiding don’t only ensure an exceptionally high quality of wound rolls, they also reduce energy usage and material waste.

So when purchasing a new Slitter Rewinder ask your supplier what they are doing to reduce the energy consumption of their machines, it could make a big difference to your profitability. But these savings aren’t only available to companies investing in new machinery; here at Universal Converting Equipment we help our customers reduce energy consumption while improving reliability and profitability by building new control systems for old and third party slitter rewinders, after all one of the best ways to reduce overall energy consumption is to actively recycle!

Further reading on slitter efficiency:

Ideas for efficient converting…

Laser core alignment, what’s in the kit and how does it work?

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Laser core alignmentThere has recently been a surge of interest in our laser core alignment system, so we have written this post to explain how the system is installed and how it works.

Core positioning.
We fit our ComputaCore Laser Core Alignment System to many of the slitters we manufacture, and we also offer our laser core alignment system as a kit for installation on slitters made by other manufacturers.  A measurement is taken from a fixed point (a ‘datum’) to ensure that the position of the cores is correct in relation to the slitter knives.  We have a great deal of experience in upgrading third party machinery and if you feel you would benefit from a more integrated approach to controlling your slitter rewinder we can replace the control system.

Installation.
The ComputaCore Laser Core Alignment System has been designed to be very easy to install on almost any slitter and while the majority of our customers use their own engineers to install the system one of our engineers can install the system for you if required.

The laser core alignment kit consists of four main components:

  1. Laser pointer
  2. A linear actuator rail (manufactured to the correct width for your slitter)
  3. A control box with touchscreen
  4. Instruction manual

We do not provide the support arms that hold the laser core alignment system above the slitter rewind shafts, but can fabricate these for you for a small additional cost.

Core sizes.
We are often asked which cores sizes the laser core alignment system is compatible with, and the short answer is ‘all of them’ – because the laser pointer beams a line of light across the rewind shafts it does not matter what diameter your cores are, the line of light will still be in the correct place for your operator to correctly align them.

Conclusion.
Installing a Universal ComputaCore Laser Core Alignment System is simple and will greatly reduce job set up time while increasingly accuracy.

Slitter web guiding made simpler and greener

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Energy efficient converting machineryUniversal Converting Equipment focus on re-usable energy and ease of use for their web guiding system.

As a part of their commitment to ‘actively reduce energy usage’ Universal Converting Equipment have developed a ‘regenerative’ web guiding system. The ‘Converter Guide 4’ is a simple to use web guiding system designed as an upgrade for slitters and winding machines, or as a replacement for obsolete or inefficient guiders. The guider is operated via a touchscreen interface which is very simple to use.

The Converter Guide 4 web guider is energy efficient partly because it uses electric linear actuators instead of dirty and inefficient hydraulics. A typical guider actuator spends as much time braking as it does motoring, we store the energy produced by braking to be utilised during the motoring phases of operation, thereby reducing the overall energy consumption of the web guider.

The Converter Guide 4 web guider is designed to retrofit onto a wide range of slitting machines such as Atlas, Titan, Kampf, Goebels, Parkland, Cameron, Elite, Dusenbery, Ashe Converting, and many others. It can also be used on other converting machines including coating and laminating machines, sheeters, unwinds, presses and hot melt coating machines. It can be used to replace web guiding system from Fife, Erhard+Leimer, BST or built into new installations.

 

More information – https://universalconvertingequipment.com/web-guiding

MACtac U.K. Ltd improve both quality and customer service by installing the latest highly automated X9 Slitter Rewinder from Ipswich based Universal Converting Equipment.

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Universal Converting Equipment have sold a highly automated duplex centre wind Slitter to Bemis group company, MACtac U.K. Ltd for use at their Northampton facility.

MACtac U.K. have a reputation for fast delivery of quality, label product, maintaining this requires periodic investment in emerging technologies.

“When the decision to invest in a new slitter rewinder was taken, our principle considerations were short run productivity and the capability to process label stock and some open adhesive substrates. The Universal X9 with its auto-knife setting, laser core-alignment, auto-roll offloading and automatic tension control (along with the Universal’s experience in handling label stock) made Universal’s X9 a clear contender in our procurement process. The more aspects of the converting process that we can automate, the better service and quality we can offer our customers,” says Rachel Barton of MACtac U.K.

“Working with our sister company Universal Adhesive Systems Limited has given us considerable experience in handling label stock and substrates with open adhesives. We applied our experience to ensure issues surrounding knife cleaning, web-path geometry and roller covering performance were minimised. Also the X9 features closed loop rewind tension (load cells) control as standard, this always gives superior results compares to equipment with open loop control.” says Universal Converting Equipment Technical Director Dave Ward.

The transport that delivered the new Universal X9 also removed the redundant slitter, it was therefore essential that the new slitter was commissioned immediately and without problems. This was achieved and throughout the the commissioning phase not a single scrap roll was produced.