Core commitment

Machinery manufacturers worldwide who make the cores, chucks and accessories that drive the converting sector have been busy innovating in the past year, despite the devastating global recession that affected the entire industrial manufacturing sector.

Christopher Buxton, chief executive of the UK’s Processing and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA), says: “The recession hit the consumer market pretty early on, and the effects of that found their way up the supply chain,” Mr Buxton says, adding that the USA and the rest of Europe had similar struggles. But some companies fared reasonably well last year, thanks to their forward-thinking export strategy.

He says that even innovations in the packaging and converting sectors were related to the emerging Asian markets,: since the Asian manufacturers’ edge comes from their cheaper labour. European and USA competitors have been trying to undercut that edge through new automation processes.

“If you can come up with a way to remove the human hand from the process, you can scare them (the Asian companies) a bit. So there’s been a huge surge in the automation and robotics sectors.” He says converters can install robots to replace humans, and save costs and energy – because robots can work with the lights off and in the cold, unlike humans, and can work 24 hours a day.

The idea of reducing energy has become a big buzzword for manufacturers, and Mr Buxton says innovation has also grown from the push to be environment-friendly. Converting machine companies are creating faster, more efficient chucks, shafts and rollers to serve their clients, who are itching to save euros, pounds and dollars, and be green to boot.

Improved efficiency was the aim of an innovation developed by Double E International, which applied the theme to the customer service side of its products. The company has released a new Solution Series of all-in-one roll stands, which range from a simple A-frame with brakes, safety chucks, and a shaft to more complex systems with closed or open loop tension control, and even motorised rewind stands.

“We realised that we could make it easy for our customers that need a new unwind or rewind stand by pre-packaging all of the necessary components,” says Bret Hardy, marketing director for Double E. “Instead of buying the stand frame from one vendor, shafts from another, brakes from another, then having to mount and calibrate the components on-site, we now provide a turnkey stand that is ready to go right out of the crate.”

The creation of these all-in-one machines grew naturally out of customer requirements, Mr Hardy says. “Double E installed some stands in 2008, but they were not yet established as a real product line for us. We built them to accommodate customer needs when they arose. When those customers liked the stands, we naturally began thinking that we could help others with the same needs. So, we branded the Solution Series stands early last year, and they have been doing quite well for us.”

Double E is solely responsible for warranty issues on the stand and all of its accessories, which simplifies the process for the customer if there are problems.

To make matters even more convenient, the roll stands come pre-assembled with components in place. Double E says it can manufacture custom accessories such as shafts very quickly, so that companies can enjoy ‘unusually fast lead times on the complete package’. The stands have a maximum roll width of 254cm, and a roll diameter of 152cm.

Customer convenience was also the aim of US company Elsner Engineering’s launch of a new automatic core loader (ACL) last December. The ACL transfers an automatic rewinding machine’s core loading position from above the machine to the floor, which the company says is a more accessible and ‘ergonomic’ location for operators.

Elsner’s new Model ACL-18, which is available up to 101.6cm in width, also features integrated electronic sensors, which prompt the loader to feed cores when the machine is running low, or to stop feeding when it is at capacity. Elsner says the machine’s self-contained properties allow it to be ‘easily incorporated into existing machinery, Elsner or otherwise’.

Cores and chucks themselves also received some make-overs last year, and Nimcor and Goldenrod were among the companies that launched new products.

Nimcor’s new air-operated mechanical chucks provide air-assisted grip and maximum torque, and are meant for shaftless converting applications - particularly heavy-duty jobs. The bladderless, self-centring chucks are available to fit 3 and 6 inch (7.6 and 15.2cm) cores, and special 5 and 8 inch (12.7 and 20.3cm) chucks or a 3-6 inch step chuck are also available.

Goldenrod released a new line of lightweight core plugs for use in the tissue converting industry. The 1490X aluminium core plug is meant for larger ID cores of 25.4-40.6cm, and is available in pneumatic and mechanical versions.

“These new core plugs will be most appreciated by the tissue and non-wovens plant personnel in charge of rolls and core maintenance,” says Goldenrod’s vice-president of sales David Sullivan, explaining that their lightweight design will reduce heavy lifting for the operators and therefore avoid back injuries on the job.

In the rollers sector, innovation was on the move to achieve faster outputs. In January, Jarshire, in the UK, released new non-expanding carbon fibre rollers to complement its carbon fibre lug shafts unveiled in 2009.

“Due to the very high working speed and greater spans reached by tissue and converting machines, the use of carbon fibre rollers is now almost compulsory, as steel or aluminium rollers are not able to support the required critical speed and start vibrating, leading to major issues for the machine and production quality,” the company states.

And since carbon fibre is one of the toughest composites available, the rollers and lug shafts offer an extremely high strength to weight ratio. This can lead to major cost savings, as it takes less energy and a smaller motor to get a carbon fibre roller up to speed, Jarshire says, adding that carbon rollers are particularly useful for improving print quality on printing presses, and offer better curve positions, less vibration and less deformation. The rollers are available up to 420mm in diameter, and with face lengths of up to 800cm.

The product features carbon-steel joints that stabilise the connection ‘without play’, and longitudinal elastic modules higher than 300 gigapascals (GPa), which is 1.5 times the elastic modules of steel, the company adds. The carbon fibre rollers can be customised to be used as passing bars for expanding chucks, to meet manual handling regulations, or used as idler and path rollers. Also in the UK, Just Rollers launched its new Ultra Dynamic high performance nip roller covering, meant to increase speed and reduce downtime. The company specialises in rubber and polyurethane-covered rollers, and this new covering is a ‘unique polymer development which provides high heat resistance, high abrasion resistance and market-leading resilience’.

Because of its durability, this polymer, which is expected to be most useful for flexo printing, film manufacture and tissue embossing, promises to be long-lasting and cost-effective, providing ‘a full service life in applications where traditional compounds fail prematurely,’ according to Just Rollers.