Case study: Möller winder makes a difference

UK paper converter and contract packer John Slack has installed a Möller TRW1000 roll winding machine at its Hayfield factory to broaden the service it offers. It has enabled the company to improve efficiency and to look to entirely new product lines.

Although John Slack does process selfadhesive and die cut borders on to cores, it has, to date, worked chiefly in the conversion of parent reels to coreless rolls for the wallcoverings, wrapping paper and education markets.

The TRW1000, trialled in Germany and installed in July, brings added features that will allow the company to offer a wider range of products. Apart from its high speed and ability to work across a range of diameters and lengths, it includes features such as core or sheet stiffener insertion at the winding stage. The shrinkwrapping module employs special features said to guarantee a superb product presentation.

All machine functions are electronically controlled, and the TRW1000 comes complete with automatic adhesive label application. Non adhesive labels can also be inserted under film, if preferred.

Not only can the company now offer improved efficiency, it can consider entirely new product lines. The greater flexibility in diameter and length, as well as the ability to add cores or stiffener, make giftwrap and counter rolls obvious possibilities, for example, and negotiations with companies operating in these areas are already under way.

The Möller machine is modular in construction and there was close consultation between the two companies at the design stage to make sure that the end product had the correct ‘build’ of facilities that would balance general flexibility with the operating efficiency required for key products. Its working parameters for finished products are: inside diameter 25-45mm, outside diameter up to 190mm, width 400-1,020mm, roll lengths 1-250m (rolls can be coreless or with core or stiffener inserted).

John Slack managing director Pete Isherwood says installation, commissioning and training all went “remarkably smoothly”. He adds: “The machine has ‘bedded-in’ well and is already offering very pleasing efficiency returns”.