Slitting & Rewinding A slitting success story


Exactly 10 years ago, Achenbach Buschhütten, specialist in rolling mill machinery, took the strategic decision to expand its range of Optimill rolling mills for non-ferrous metals and supporting process and media by offering foil slitting machinery


A


xel Barten, president and CEO of the family-owned company, said at that


time: “Our goal is to provide our rolling mill customers with innovative and effective foil slitting machinery, solving its often very challenging and tailor-made doubling, separating and slitting task optimally. In particular we want to remain specialists and at the same time expand our product range to provide maximum customer benefit.” Achenbach aimed to optimise the


manufacturing of foil products right from the start. The company is still one of the only companies building both rolling mill and foil slitting machinery. “Today, 10 years later, it is no exaggeration to


say that Achenbach is also being well-received by the worldwide markets of foil slitting machinery,” says André Barten, the company’s current CEO. “A large number of Optifoil doublers, separators and slitters have been put into operation, focusing on aluminium, as well as copper and brass products.”


HIGH-QUALITY COMPONENTS A characteristic of Optifoil foil slitting machines is that all the individual components are made to last. This applies, for example, to the particularly solid and robust design of the machine frame to avoid vibration or the use of high-quality bought- in parts, such as drive components and slitting and winding tools. In addition there is the highly eficient utilisation of the installed drive power and an optimal interplay between all the mechanical, electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic modules, with benefits including high machine speed, high process stability and the highest possible machine uptime.


Particularly demanding customer


requirements at the customer’s company have always been Achenbach’s starting point for the development of new components. The single contact roller system as part of the Optifoil machine has been patented and is an integral feature of all new HeavySlit foil slitting machines. Also, Achenbach set standards with its self-


developed process control system and initiated a continuous development project, which means it is now applied to all Optifoil machines. Meanwhile, the company’s combination of


single driven contact rollers and a hydro- pneumatic pressure system achieves best results in all product areas, starting with the compact separator for capacitor foil as special-purpose machinery for large rolls in the packaging industry.


SHORT DOWN-TIMES In product fields with highly developed technology like foil slitting machines, reduced down-time plays a key role in view of the aim of the targeted increase in productivity. For Achenbach, emphasis is placed on entry-coil loading and finished-roll unloading, and new control systems and constructional solutions speed up the handling considerably and thus lead to considerable reductions in dead-cycle and down-times. The market for products made from aluminium


foil has developed in such a way that not only the operating companies of foil slitting machines now have to work in a highly productive manner, but they are increasingly having to also offer a high degree of flexibility when it comes to production. The aim here is to minimise stocks and guarantee just-in-time delivery to downstream users.


For slitter manufacturers, this in turn means


they have to be designed in such a way that they are capable of processing ever-smaller production units of different foil products without affecting productivity and without any loss in quality.


INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY An important factor in successfully achieving the high aims is the strategy of developing technical solutions in an interdisciplinary manner, which is rigorously pursued by Achenbach. Integrated technology means adopting a holistic approach with a two-way development process involving mechanical design and in-house process automation, and a high precision drive control geared to this development. With the inclusion of the new foil slitting


technology in its product range, Achenbach is offering production-spanning technical solutions that cover a large part of aluminium cold rolling and processing through to the different foil products. Offering everything from a single source means it is possible to design the production process in an optimal manner – from rolling through to the packing of the finished rolls after subsequent processing. As well as optimising the flow of materials there is also the opportunity to arrange the flow of data from the whole foil production process from start to finish. This is done by the new Optilink platform providing a specific hard- and software for collecting, analysing and evaluating production data by means of a digital system networking.


MACHINERY ‘MADE IN BUSCHHÜTTEN’ “We pursue the successful philosophy of quality identified with ‘made in Germany’ of the Optimill rolling mill machinery, also when it comes to our Optifoil foil slitting machinery,” explains Thomas Dornseifer, senior sales manager for Optifoil machines at Achenbach. “Doublers, separators and slitters are not only developed and tailor-made at our house, but also manufactured and installed.” Examples of this include the HeavySlit slitting


cassette to correct axial movement in the range, and the Optifoil winding concepts, demanding high precision in production and assembly. Optifoil division manager, Thomas Timmer,


adds: “When it comes to the slitting and winding of premium finished rolls quality already starts with the quality of the manufactured components. The best technical solutions always result out of the combination of Achenbach know-how and our customer’s input.”


uwww.achenbach.de 28 March 2017 www.convertermag.co.uk


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