Q: What should converters look for when shopping for a new slitter/rewinder? What features might not be necessary to have on their slitter/rewinder?
Homewood: In our experience, when converters have plans to invest in additional slitting capacity, they are constantly looking at ways to achieve higher machine performance with the highest quality rewind reels and of course, higher productivity.
But they are also becoming more conscious of how solutions impact upon the environment and what their future production requirements might be, to maximize their ROI. More flexible and sustainable solutions in slitting & rewinding have therefore become very important in recent years.
Atlas Converting Equipment Ltd. (UK) responded to this challenge with the introduction of the ‘next generation’ Titan SR9 Series technology platform to address these issues. In the R&D process, we focused our product development strategy on achieving significant reductions for converters in machine downtime, including reduced reel set change time, lower operator intervention and also reduction of costly waste materials.
Elimination of all hydraulics on the SR9 Series has helped to provide a cleaner environment and a considerable reduction in energy consumption. The use of high efficiency motors and regenerative braking makes the SR9 Series the most energy efficient slitter in the Titan range.
Q: How can converters optimize their slitting/rewinding to reach the best outcome?
Homewood: The concept of the Titan SR9 Series technology platform features 3 separate machine modules of unwind, slitter & rewind sections to optimize production flexibility. The idea being that a converter only need change the rewind section of the slitter from a Dual Shaft (DS) to a Single Turret (ST) or Dual Turret (DT) configuration, without the need to change the existing unwind and slitting modules.
The DS and DT formats are already available from Titan with the ST module ready for early next year. The SR9 Series is available in two widths - 65 and 88 ins (1650 and 2250 mm) – and will run at speeds up to 3,300 ft/min. (1,000 m/min.).
Q: Have there been any new developments in this subsection of the flexible packaging market?
Homewood: Titan’s innovative engineering and design concept has led to application for 4 patents on the Titan SR9 Series. Such advanced designs have led to significant improvements in quality of slit reels, reduction of set-up times and much higher productivity.
Q: What are the key points to ensure for correct and proper slitting/rewinding?
Homewood: The innovative Linear Tracking Slitter (LTS) section on the Titan SR9 Series ensures the shortest and a constant web length between the knives and the rewind shafts for improved web control giving the highest possible side wall quality of rewind reels and also reducing the possibility of waste material. The time required for reel set changes is greatly reduced with the Rewind Core Positioning (RCP3) system using laser, servo or a fully automated system.
The Rewind Clamp Cut-off mechanism (RCC) automatically cuts all rewind reel tails, saving operator intervention for either of the rewind modules. The Automatic Tape Down (ATD) system then secures all tails to the rewind reels and prepares the new cores with adhesive tape strips for rewinding, enabling a fast re-start and constant high quality rewind packages.
Atlas Converting Equipment Ltd., UK
www.atlasconverting.com
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