Sheeter review

In-house sheeting cuts costs and speeds response

Canadian folding carton manufacturer Les Boites General has installed an MDK sheeter from Maxson Automatic Machinery. The company produces complete lines of packaging products and folding cartons in an 80,000ft² plant in Quebec.

Producing cartons for pastry and other food companies, its machinery armoury comprised a total of four MAN Roland printing presses – a six colour, a four colour and two two colour units. The company has two die cutters, as well as five folder gluers.

In the demanding Montreal marketplace, Les Boites differentiates itself from the competition by concentrating on quick delivery of quality work – in some cases turning orders around within 24 hours. "The pastry business is driven by holiday seasons," notes Daniel Avard. "Business peaks from September through December for Christmas and then again for Easter."

Relying on mills to provide sheeted board was affecting competitiveness. He recalls: "We could wait as long as three weeks for deliveries of sheets from our suppliers and there was an up charge for the service." With an eye towards providing better deliveries, eliminating the sheeting surcharge and improving quality, Les Boites General investigated in-house sheeting.

After reviewing several manufacturers' models the company decided on Maxson's dual knife rotary MDK. "I was impressed by Maxson's responsiveness, we heard good things from other companies that had their equipment, and the proposal was fairly priced", he affirms.

The 65in wide sheeter was supplied with a shaftless roll stand, web guidance system, a slitting section to permit two-pile service, a dual knife rotary cutter geared to 1,300ft/min, a reject gate to divert out of specification material and a dust collector to clean the sheets.

A pile offset design is geared to eliminating the need to aerate and restack the skid prior to feeding into the press. A rapid pallet discharge system allows continuous operation while making skid changes. The web conditioning unit includes a motorized decurler and a web steering unit.

"The sheeter is very accurate, the cut-off is better than what we were getting from our suppliers. And it remains precise regardless of speed. Waste associated with the sheeter is less than two per cent and we are striving to have no more than 1.5 per cent spoilage."

He continues: "We team two operators on the sheeter, one to run the machine and the other to support it by preparing rolls, having pallets ready, and removing the full skids. In fact, because the sheeter is fairly easy to run, the original crew has trained employees on the second shift to run the Maxson."

The president of Les Boites General concludes: "I like how the automatic off-load system keeps the sheeter and the operators moving. If we had to stop the sheeter to replace the skids, we would lose one to two minutes per skid change. With this continuous running operation the sheeter is so much more productive. We convert up to four tons an hour on the machine and have set a goal to produce five."

Has the investment in sheeting made sense? According to Daniel Avard, rolls of board are being delivered within a week instead of the three weeks scheduled for sheet orders. Material waste is less and the quality of the sheet is better. The cost of board is now five to 10 per cent less than that being paid before in-house sheeting.

Investment payback is conservatively estimated to be within three years, says the company.

Cost cutting edge

Accura APEX sheeters are claimed to operate at speeds and production capacities on a par with the world's best at a fraction of the capital cost and space requirement of their European and American counterparts.

The Manila, Philippines headquartered company's design philosophy is to use standard parts readily available off-the-shelf from major global suppliers, for example Festo Pneumatics, and Siemens drives and motors. Over 700 Accura sheeters are currently installed in over 30 countries.

Most sheeter manufacturers are promoting synchro-fly double rotary sheeters using advanced drive technology to convert heavyweight paperboards up to 800g/m². The Accura Synchro 145 and 170 Synchro-fly Double Rotary Sheeters will be launched at Ipex.

Compact saver

MarquipWardUnited is now offering a cut-off knife and sheeter specifically designed for the production needs of small to medium sized converters and folding carton plants at "a significantly lower cost".

The SheetWizard it is a compact machine design using an integrated frame that incorporates the slitter, draw roll, knife cylinders and outfeed tape belts.

Capable of running both paper and board, it is claimed to provide cut accuracy of +/-0.015in. Its sheeter knife can cut sheets as short as 11in and as long as 60in. Maximum production speed is 1,000ft/min with a speed curve designed to accommodate higher speeds on shorter 'digital sized' sheets.

The first SheetWizard will be installed early this year.