Slitter Man

Web guiding is a term describing the method used to correct badly wound rolls or material and is used on slitters and salvage winders .  A sensor looks at material (web) running through a machine and sends a signal to a device that moves parts of the machine to correct the badly wound roll.  Putting it at its most basic web guiding systems allow you to load a roll with a bad edge profile (I.E. not flat) onto a machine rewind it so that it has a flat edge profile. Guider eyes (sensors) read the edge of the web, a line on the web or a 'broken' line printed on a roll of material.  If the web guiding system 'sees' the web move left it will move the web to the right so that as it winds up on the rewind end of the slitter / doctor machine the edge of the final roll will be flat. Many older web guiders move the winding web using hydraulic or pneumatic (air) methods, but hydraulics can leak oil onto the web and pneumatics tend to have slow response times unsuitable to f

Sometimes when cutting cores in a core cutter odd lengths are left over, they are too short to be useful so they are either discarded as waste or taped to other waste cores in an attempt to join several bits of scrap together to create a single usable core.  Taping several lengths of core together can create potentially dangerous problems that I won't go into, needless to say it's not a great idea! But I can see why companies wish to minimise scrap core waste, so here's a potentially better way of doing so: Save money and minimise core wastage without using tape to join together scrap bits of core Several of our customers buy in parent cores at multiple lengths and then use the most appropriate cores for each job.  We have designed our Core Cutter to accurately measure the parent core as it is loaded, the machine then works out how much trim to cut off meaning that each subsequent cut creates a usable core. One of our customers had an aggressively low target for reducin

When you get right down to the gritty details of cardboard cores you'll find that no two core suppliers are quite the same, and when bought in bulk no two parent / master cores are quite the same length.  As your freshly purchased cores come off the transport and into your life you'll find the lengths in the batch are very similar, but they are infrequently all  exactly the same size. The variations in core lengths will often be very small, but when you're as focussed on minimising waste when cutting cores as you are focussed on cutting accurate core lengths then knowing exactly how long your parent cores are is crucial.  You could have your operator measure every core as it comes off the pallet, but that would be time consuming, and with the best will in the world it would probably also be inaccurate. Core cutter auto-trim Our CCA Automatic Core Cutters solves the problem of irregular sized parent cores by having a switch-able 'auto-trim' function.  After the

A trim fan attached to a slitter. As discussed previously on this blog the process of slitting (at its most basic) can be reduced to the one-line description of ' a big roll is loaded on one side of the slitter rewinder, and smaller rolls are loaded off the other side'  and that's fine... most of the time. Here comes the example! If a 1000mm wide roll is loaded onto a rewinder and is slit down into rolls that are 212mm wide then four rolls would be produced.  If your mental maths is up to scratch you might have noticed that 4x212 does not equal 1000, and that means that from the original / master / jumbo roll there will be roughly 117mm left over.    Sometimes this happens because the edges of jumbo rolls are discarded due to damage, print reasons or simply because the material being slit isn't coated all the way to the edges of the roll. So what happens to this waste material? Waste material can be wound onto cores in the same way 'correct' rolls are,

Closed Loop Tension Control  describes of the systems we use to accurately control the tension of materials running through slitting and winding machines ; the simplest description of the process that I can come up with for the purposes of this blog post is thus: When we utilise Closed Loop Tension Control on a machine load cell (sensors) are installed on key parts of the machine, these load cells measure the actual tension of the materials being wound as it passes through the machine.  The information fed back from the load cells is then used by the control system to make precise adjustments to the machine to attain perfect tension throughout the slitting or rewinding process. Now I'll be the first to admit that the above paragraph is hardly a snappy explanation of a process that is essential to controlling substrate tension, so I'm going to try and simplify even further by explaining why you might want closed loop tension control rather than explaining how it works (I

Trim / waste disposal is a subject that is integral to efficient winding, but conceptually it can be a bit difficult to explain to customers who aren't familiar with managing waste. A lot of companies go to great lengths to try and minimise the amount of waste they generate, which makes sense as far as economics and environmental awareness, but sometimes waste cannot be avoided. The video below shows a trim winder that was a part of a l arge slitter we recently built for a regular customer of ours.  This slitter rewinder was designed to convert large rolls of metallized polyester, which is supplied on rolls that are not coated the full width of the web, so a trim needs to be cut off during the winding / slitting process.  Some customers wind trim waste material onto cores on the rewind shafts, and some let narrow trims fall to the floor, but while both options are workable both can be problematic for operators and potentially damaging to materials. Trim winders like the ones sh

A (used) 6" differential ball chuck designed to fit a 60mm rewind shaft (once the 3" chucks have been removed!) I sometimes use this personal blog of mine to talk about the basics of slitting and rewinding, with the content partly led by thinking back to the questions I had when I first started working in the converting machinery industry.  One of the first questions I had was 'how on earth can slitter rewinders with 3" rewind shafts be used for winding onto 6" cores?' A lot of converters and labellers / packaging companies regularly switch between winding onto 3" (76mm) and 6" (152mm) cores, which is one of the reasons we designed our Automatic Core Cutter to change between core sizes in under thirty seconds.  But what do companies who predominantly wind onto 3" cores do when they need to wind onto 6" cores?  The answer is actually quite simple - they remove the 3" ball chucks and slide on 6" core chucks!  There are of

We are about to publish a new company brochure and I'd like the readers of my blog (and my Twitter followers) the chance to be the first to receive a copy.  If you would like a copy of our new brochure please email brochure@ucel.co.uk and I'll send a copy over right away.

Slitter terminology can be bewildering; part of the problem being that there's no industry standards for the terms used when describing various parts of the slitter and winding process.   I've talked about this before so won't focus on it now, instead I'll ask you to point your clicks at this Slitter Glossary , instead I'm going to look at how we describe some of the more complex issues surrounding slitting and rewinding. Some of terms used when describing slitter processes are conceptual, by which I mean they might describe the part of a process that isn't easily described with the written word.  I had my suspicions and they were confirmed when we started work on the aforementioned Slitter Glossary .  Because a lot of slitter terminology related to the movement of materials and their reactions to external pressures we have started using graphic overlays to denote movement, see below for a couple of examples. So if you're looking for a slitter or salv

Adding hot melt adhesive coating capability to an existing print press allows you to service your existing customers needs without investing in a new line.  We've put together a short video to introduce you to our HMCS (Hot Melt Coating Station), a popular coating station that is easily integrated with almost any print press. More about the Hot Melt Adhesive Coating Station...

Titan Slitters are solid, well-built machines, we know this because we've been working on them for years, in fact we used to do a lot of service work around the world on behalf of Titan. Because we know Titans we know how to upgrade them.  There is a whole section on Titan Slitter upgrades  on our website, and we've now published a video to YouTube showing some of the Titan upgrades we have available.

Over the past few weeks we've gently introduced two new slitter rewinders into our range , we've not (yet) made a huge fanfare to announce these machines but we have been drip-feeding information out through tweets and some adverts and articles in the press.  We haven't been focussing the press adverts on these new slitters, but we have been including images of the new machines on said adverts Slitter Rewinder X6 Flexible Packaging Slitter This new slitter shares a lot of common ground with our flagship slitter (the X9 ), and has been designed to fill a gap in the market just below our largest machine.  The new X6 shares a lot of its design and components with the X9, and shares many of the same options, the X6 has been developed as a lower-cost alternative to the very large duplex slitters on the market. Find out more.... Slitter Rewinder X1 Small footprint, low cost slitter The X1 is one of the smallest duplex slitters we've made (excluding our  cantile

' Low Cost Slitter ' is a phrase I thought long and hard about when writing some marketing copy for our Universal X1 slitter  - we're trying to get across the fact that we have partly designed this slitter to be a minimal capital investment, but we also need to make sure potential customers know that this is a solidly built and cleverly designed device.  Before I go any further let's have a quote: "There is hardly anything in the world today that some man cannot make just a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who buy on price alone are this man’s awful prey." - John Ruskin (1819 - 1900) This quote perfectly summarises why I put so much thought into how to describe our recently redesigned X1 slitter rewinder; here is a machine that has a price tag that won't look too painful on an invoice, but it is by no means a budget machine. Introducing the Universal X1 Low Cost Slitter Our 'low cost slitter' wasn't designed i

I start this blog post with the caveat that this really is my personal blog, so nothing in this post represents the views of my employers!  I have been putting a lot of thought into how to write and design exciting adverts for our new low cost slitter without following the industry standard of either: Showing a photo of a beige machine with a list of stats Showing a  tenuously linked 'concept' stock image What came of this 'left field' brainstorming is the advert you see below.  There are several problems with this advert, none of which I'm going to list here, but I still think it's quite fun.  We're not going to be using this advert anywhere, so it really was just a thought piece, but if we don't shoot from the hip with new ideas then stagnation is inevitable. I've never put out an advert that I'm not entirely happy with, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop searching for a better idea!

Roll Handling is a subject that naturally rises to the surface quite often at Universal Converting Equipment , this comes as no surprise as the majority of the equipment we manufacture is designed for processing rolls, and those rolls have to safely get to our machines before they can be processed. One of the issues we've noticed with a lot of third party roll handling trolleys on the market is that they don't appear to be very well set up for unloading a roll at a different angle to how it was loaded.  To clarify I'm going to give you a very simple scenario:  You buy in your jumbo rolls on pallets, they arrive on said pallets neatly standing on end.  Your slitter runs rolls horizontally, and so you need a way of getting the rolls off the pallet and onto the slitter unwind shaft without your spine exploding, and you've probably guessed by now that we have the answer to this potentially dangerous problem... If this blog was a shopping channel now would be the point

Core Cutters have been at the forefront of my mind over the last few days, mostly because we have been working with our video team on a new demonstration video for our Automatic Core Cutter . You can view our rather smart new video below, and you can find out more about Automatic Core Cutters (and of course buy one) by contact me directly or by visiting  https://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/core-cutters/automatic-core-cutter P.S I'm taking bookings for Core Cutter demos down here in Ipswich at the moment, so get in touch if you want to come and have a go on one of our demonstration machines!

This is potentially an interesting idea, I've created a 'Slitter Clinic' on the Linked In website.  The idea behind the slitter clinic is that slitter owners, managers and operators can drop by and ask advice in an environment that isn't commercially orientated. I don't know if this idea has legs, but if you don't try you never find out! Visit the slitter clinic -  http://t.co/Pj3Lfwi6

This follows on from my last post about slitter repair - we have added a fast response form to our website for slitter repair requests. You are, of course, still welcome to call us at any time on +44 (0)1473 403333 but using the Slitter Rewinder Repair Request form at  https://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/about-universal/slitter-rewinder-repair-request is there for you should prefer to contact us in that way.

Slitter downtime is something everyone wants to avoid - when a machine isn't running it isn't being productive, and therefore it isn't making money.  Ensuring that slitter rewinders (and of course, all other converting machinery) run at peak efficiency is a two-way street, and one of the many things that makes me proud to work at Universal Converting Equipment is our ability to respond to customers' service needs fast, really fast. Late yesterday afternoon we took a call from the production manager at a UK facility who was tearing his hair out due to the failure of a third party machine.  We immediately dispatched an engineer, and even although the failed machine wasn't one that we had built our expert was able to get the machine back up and running in well under an hour. This speed of response is by no means unusual for us, but the reason I wanted to mention it here on my blog is that I was fortunate enough to be the person who took the call from the very el

The ' Slitter Anatomy ' section on our website is proving very popular, but because the images that are used to explain which part performs which function are of our largest slitter (the Universal X9 ) I thought it might be useful to have a look at the anatomy of the duplex slitter we have at the other end of the range (the low cost, small footprint Universal X1 ). Anatomy of a small slitter. Unwind Section The unwind section includes an airshaft for mounting the unwind / parent roll, this shaft lifts out so that it can be fed through the parent roll.  The parent / jumbo roll is then loaded back into the machine and secured using safety chucks.  The parent roll is held in place using bladders that expand when inflated and hold the roll in place. Rewind section The airshafts on the rewind section are fitted with air bladders that hold the cores for the finished rolls in place when inflated.  The airshafts are inflated via the touchscreen control panel.  The rewind sha

Web-guiding is in principle very simple indeed, in fact I'm going to prove it by narrowing it down to just three steps: The sensor notices the web move A signal is sent to the actuator to tell it to move the web to compensate The operator takes another sip of tea and continues to look smug In reality the web guiding systems we build are very clever indeed, but as with all our systems our slitter guider systems are very user-friendly; once a web guider is fitted there's almost no training needed, and very little operator input is needed. Web guider systems are predominantly installed on slitters and salvage rewinders . Find out more about our web guiding systems...

Even if you're new to the world of hot melt adhesives and the machinery that is used to coat and laminate materials you could probably guess that the use of the word 'hot' in 'hot melt adhesives' denotes high energy usage.  While it's true that in bringing adhesives up to a temperature that they can be used for precise coating a fair amount of energy is consumed, it doesn't have to be as much energy as it used to be. When we (Universal Converting Equipment) build hot melt adhesive coating and laminating equipment (or add coating capabilities to our slitter machines ) we recommend our customers use ITW Dynatec adhesive supply units, these are supplied by our sister company Universal Adhesives Limited in Daventry (affectionately known to us as 'Dav'). The new range of ITW's 'Dynamelt' supply systems have been designed with a focus on reducing energy usage, which fits in perfectly with the work we have been putting in to actively reduce

At the risk of sounding like I'm marketing for them instead of Universal I'd like to mention  Package Print Worldwide ( @PackPrintWorld ) again.  We contributed to the safe materials handling article in the new issue of Package Print Worldwide, with particular focus given to our roll handling trolley .  We have recently expanded the range of material handling attachments for the trolley and have seen the number of enquiries rise considerably.  Sadly safety is a subject that is sometimes (thankfully only rarely) overlooked by some companies, and when it comes to safe roll handling the risk of personal injury is one that is easy to minimise with the correct equipment.  We have priced our materials handling equipment at a level that should be easily affordable to all, so there's no excuse for lax safety! More roll handling information: Find out more about our roll handling trolley... Reducing roll handling risk and increasingly productivity...

If you look in the new issue of Package Print Worldwide ( @PackPrintWorld ) you'll spot a photo of our rather handsome X3 Slitter Rewinder on page 18, the reason this slice of cool blue is on page 18 is because it is a good example of one of our energy (and money) saving slitters.  A large part of my job at Universal Converting Equipment involves working on press releases and talking to editors and journalists, and while this bit of coverage is one of many I thought I'd mention it here on my own blog because energy efficiency is a topic we've been talking about a lot recently. Reducing energy usage has long been a hot topic in our factory (and equally importantly in our design suite), and over the last few months we've started to let the world know what our machines can do to reduce energy consumption.  I'm particularly proud of this aspect of our machinery as reducing energy consumption is something of a personal mission of mine (I even cycle to work!), so I t

Lasers and slitters go together like cheese and biscuits, and fitting laser scoring, cutting and perforation devices to slitter rewinders is something that has now become reasonably commonplace here in our factory, but lasers can do a lot more than cut and perforate. We've recently had a huge upsurge in interest in our ' ComputaCore ' laser core alignment system, and because it is such a simple system to control and operate it can be a little bit challenging finding many things to write about it - it's simple and it works very well! But what's in the box? We've made our laser core alignment kit as easy to fit as it is to operate, and to highlight the simplicity of this approach to perfect core alignment we've recently published a post on the subject on our blog here - https://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/laser-core-alignment-whats-in-the-kit-and-how-does-it-work We're planning a new promotional video for our laser core alignment syste

Today I've been busy with core cutter demos, more specifically I've been demonstrating our CCA Automatic Core Cutter .  An increasing number of companies are coming to us to investigate the huge cost savings that can be made by buying in cores in full lengths rather than as cut cores . One conversation with a customer re-enforced the advantage of having a core cutter 'in-house' to salvage core off-cuts left over from other jobs. A topic that often pops up when speaking to customers about core cutters is supply chain risk, and how owning (or leasing) a core cutter allows companies to minimise risk by buying in large quantities of full length cores (at a discount) and cutting their own extensive stock of cores.  This makes a lot of sense to me - for the small cost of buying a core cutter you can avoid your production managers tearing their hair out because they have slitting jobs to run but no cores on which to wind onto! So in conclusion I think our automatic core

Slitting / cutting machines are complex beasts, and so I guess it is perfectly natural that a complex vocabulary is spawned by discussing the methods and mechanics of slitting.  The corporate culture within companies that use converting machinery usually ensures that slitter operators and their management all speak the same language, but when a need arises for slitter users to speak to outside agencies (when buying or servicing machinery) then it can become a bit of a challenge making oneself understood. Introducing the Slitter Glossary. When new customers contact me about buying a new slitter (or upgrading / servicing an third-party machine) it is important to make sure I fully understand our customers' needs.  I concentrate a large portion of my energies  making the specification part of the buying process incredibly simple for our customers, and recently a part of that process has involved creating a glossary of slitter terms . The slitter glossary is a bit like a garden or

Slitters  tend to be a total mystery to anyone working outside of the packaging, printing, converting industry , and yet they impact many aspects of every day life.  I am the Sales and Marketing manager at  Universal Converting Equipment , and I will be using this (personal) blog to talk a little bit about what I do, and will be discussing  converting machines and industry developments that interest me.  I'll try and update this blog as often as possible, but, well, if you've ever run a blog you'll know how tough it can be to keep these things up to date! This blog is my own, and therefore does not represent the opinions of my employers.