FEATURE Slitting & Rewinding Converting happy customers into
repeat business for over a decade Alpha Converting believes that its approach to understanding its customer requirements has led to some important machine product developments over the years
Since 1999, Alpha Converting Equipment has produced slitter rewinders, unwind and rewinds, and other associated converting equipment for UK and worldwide markets. The company prides itself on its understanding that satisfied customers appreciate the quality of the equipment and, with the correct machine for their requirements, are happy to place orders for repeat machines. In any process there ends up being
compromises and it is the role of Alpha Converting to fully understand the priorities of its customers in order to supply the best solutions, says sales manager Trevor Pimm.
Closed loop unwind tension The ALPHATWIN slitter rewinder has many features for high quality winding of general packaging films and laminates. Every machine is fitted with closed loop unwind tension control and this will be selected from a choice of load cell or dancer control depending on the roll sizes and material types to be used in the machine. Good unwind tension control is important as the hardness of the rewind roll, as well as the tracking of the web, can be affected. The layout of the slitting section can also have a major influence on the side wall quality of the rewind rolls; the best solution
would almost always be to pass over a full stacked slitting shaft providing support across the full width of the web, but this is expensive and very inefficient when changing slitting patterns. ALPHATWIN is used for slitting a wide range of webs as it has the flexibility for wrap slitting (the web wraps the female knife shaft or grooved roll) or tangential slitting (the web is slit as it passes through a pair of slitting knives or razor blades). If precise wrap slitting is required the female knives can be easily exchanged without handling of the knife shaft and restacked with spacers. Most webs do not require full support and the automatic knife setting system has a series of algorithms to optimise the web support on every slitting width, including the edge trims. With rewinding, the end process in a slitting machine, the ALPHATWIN has a full recipe system providing full control of both winding tensions and layon roll pressures across the full range of conditions. These not only control the roll hardness but can also affect the side wall quality and look of the finished roll. Once these have been set for a particular product, the conditions are stored in the recipe system, which is backed up automatically onto a data card in case of system failures, to
The ALPHAMATIC Turrett-Automatic rewinder
ensure that the investment into optimising the conditions for each product are not lost. The ALPHAWIND individual arm machine is normally used for high quality film winding and it features improved tension control on each individual roll, a constant short web path from the slitting station to the rewinds, and a very precise contact layon roll system. In narrow slitting applications the threading of the web and controlling the tracking of the web are normally the major issues, so it is key to have the correct layout of the machine with short web paths and good tension control between path rollers.
Offering a tailored service Customers have their own experiences and it is only through discussions with its customers that Alpha can then offer a machine that is perfectly suited to their needs. We build up the machine specification and, where possible, will offer a number of different options throughout the machine. Even an unwind has many choices, says Pimm. Alpha Converting offers fully automatic machines complete with core labelling, roll transfer, roll closure and wrapping, and thus removing many of the time consuming operator tasks and delivering machine dependent cycle rates down to 20 seconds. The automatic slitting knives, rewind arms or laser positioning systems can offer virtually instant size changes.
18 The ALPHATWIN film slitter and rewinder has the ability for wrap and tangential slitting
May 2015
Alpha Converting Equipment T: +44 (0)1767 692244
www.alpha-converting.co.uk
www.convertermag.co.uk
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