TEXTILES H
CUT’N’SEAL TECHNOLOGY IS A PERFECT FIT FOR HEATHCOAT FABRICS
eathcoat Fabrics, based in Tiverton in Devon, manufacture and supply world class
products to exacting standards and which often involve complex challenges. Heathcoat supply the aerospace, automotive, defence, healthcare, emergency services and niche specialist critical fabric applications. Part of their finishing process requires slitting efficiently at speed and importantly, for many materials, cutting and sealing the edges of various thermoplastic based fabrics to prevent fraying, making them ready for post processing by the customer. The ultrasonic cut’n’seal process has proven to be a perfect fit for this type of application. The ultrasonic head works in conjunction with a rotary anvil wheel which is used to trap the continuously moving fabric at a pinch point, aiding the wheel slitting edge to achieve faster cut speeds. Heathcoat take advantage of this technology when processing a number of challenging woven and knitted technical materials such as woven Meta Aramid and in the case of more standard thermoplastic woven and knitted polymers, to seal the edge either side of the cut by a local melt of the fabric thermoplastic content. The technique, although well established at Heathcoat, has required improvement upgrades on older existing slitting installations and has now been explored further with Telsonic in the evaluation of additional applications. This has culminated in a further four new locally fitted Telsonic slitting head systems within a new stenter machine delivered into Heathcoat from textile machinery specialist Brückner of Germany. This brings the total number of Telsonic slitting head systems in use at Heathcoat to eleven.
DEVELOPING ADDITIONAL APPLICATIONS Telsonic UK conducted extensive continuous cut’n’seal trials at the company’s Poole laboratory. These trials included various fabrics ranging from specialist woven Meta Aramid nylons and a range of specialist materials involving standard nylons, Polypropylene and Polyesters at various densities from 40 to 120gsm. The objective was to establish material dependant cutting speeds and sealed edges, ranging from 20 to 80m/min for core products
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FLEXI TRUCKS ARE ALWAYS IN FASHION
M
anufacturer, importer and supplier of high-quality fabrics to the fashion industry, Jerseytex, has developed a
new very narrow aisle high-density storage solution at its Midlands warehouse facility based on Flexi Truck articulated VNA forklift technology from Narrow Aisle. A long-standing Flexi Truck user, Jerseytex has operated Flexi Truck VNA trucks at its site in Tipton for the past two decades. “We bought our first Flexi Truck nearly 20
years ago and have used them ever since, so we had no hesitation in turning to Narrow Aisle when we needed a new materials handling solution to support the continued growth of our business,” says Jerseytex owner and managing director, Pritpal Singh Sidhu. “We have proved that Flexi Truck technology
and also challenge the technology with extremely fast slitting speeds of over 200m/min for parachute material. With successful outcomes of appropriate ultrasonic process parameters and cutting anvil slitting edge configuration, the trials proved Telsonic’s technology and capabilities in both the delivery of the process and its robustness over the full range of applications. Telsonic UK’s cut’n’seal solutions, in full production at Heathcoat, utilise Telsonic’s MAGW02012E fully housed generators for continuous run application, with analogue inputs controlled from the machine HMI for speed dependant amplitude output. These in turn power the SE2012S converter with cooling cap, titanium booster and Zapp hardened steel round sonotrode with chilled air cooling of the sonotrodes. The sonotrodes are tuned to low frequency and the boosters are the round type indexable to provide extended wear life at the sonotrode face, allowing re-grinds. Telsonic’s reputation within the Industry, their
experience in the continuous cut’n’seal process, together with the proven reliability of Telsonic’s hardware, were key factors in the company being chosen for this project. The performance of Telsonic’s converters, which are a crucial element in this continuous run application, combined with Zapp steel one piece tooling further reinforced Heathcoat’s confidence in the solution being proposed Telsonic UK offers a comprehensive range of
ultrasonic modules and systems for a variety of food cutting, plastic welding, cutting, sealing, cut’n’seal, metal welding, packaging, sieving, and cleaning applications within a wide range of industries.
Telsonic
www.telsonic.com
represents the most efficient and cost-effective materials handling solution for us. The Flexi Truck’s design allows us to save valuable space when operating and is generally far more efficient than traditional ‘reach’-type trucks,” he adds.
John Maguire, managing director of Narrow
Aisle, comments: “Flexi Truck products are renowned the world over for their reliability and build quality. Jerseytex has long realised the space and throughput efficiency benefits that Flexi Truck technology brings and we are delighted to have such a long and successful relationship with the company and their team at Tipton.” Jerseytex uses its Flexis to support the unloading of textile rolls from incoming vehicles before delivering the fabrics directly to the new bespoke VNA racking scheme within its Midlands storage facility. By unloading incoming vehicles and delivering loads directly to the storage system, the Flexi Trucks eliminate ‘double handling’ which allows more product to be transferred in less time. As a result, Jerseytex is able to minimise its materials handling costs and speed-up operational throughput, with fewer forklift trucks in its fleet. More than 10,000 Flexi Trucks are in operation at logistics sites across the world and there are models in the Flexi Truck VNA Digital range to suit every product type and warehouse size.
Narrow Aisle
www.flexi.co.uk
Autumn 2022 UKManufacturing
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