Slitter Man

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.