Rapid job change has been perfected
ONE OF the operating features that slitter specialist Alpha Converting has perfected in recent years is very rapid job change on its AlphaTwin and AlphaShaft machines. They have been configured for high speed slitting and winding and feature an automatic knife setting system that will typically reposition both sets of knives in 75 seconds – dramatically improving machine efficiency.
Integrated with the automatic knife setting is rewind core laser positioning. The system can be switched between shear and razor slitting for different products – the webs are separated directly after slitting before being rewound. Both machines are offered with single or twin rewinding shafts configured to provide independent centre or centre-surface drive to the roll, enabling every material to be wound under the optimum conditions.
“A laser line guides the operator for setting the rewind cores and the system receives the required positions from the knife setting so that there is no set up time when changing slitting patterns and the cores are positioned right first time,” says managing director Simon King. “Minimising operator input, from set-up to removing completed rolls, will help to maximise overall productivity. Features such as automated recipe selection, linked to automatic knife setting and laser core positioning, provide fast changeover, while accurate control of speeds and tensions and powered roll handling systems add measurably to efficiency and cost effectiveness.”
Alpha’s range of centre and centre surface slitter rewinders are able to slit and rewind a wide range of material types from thin films to heavy board and from medical films to nonwovens.
“As a slitting machine is part of a process, you need to understand the whole process is vital when specifying new equipment if it is to complement the existing operation and look to the future,” says Simon King. “In our experience, as no two projects are ever identical, rarely is an off-the-shelf machine truly suitable.”
ALPHA CONVERTING:
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