Reduce core wastage without using a tape core joiner.

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 reducing core wastage so they shopped around and bought cores just a little bit bigger than they needed.  Cores were bought slightly larger than needed to allow for some shrinkage while the cores were in storage waiting to be cut on their core cutter.  For example; if their target cores are 500mm in length they source 2000mm cores with a minus tolerance of zero (0) but a plus tolerance of maybe 10mm, expecting most of the cores they receive from their supplier to be around 2008mm.  The operator enters the number of cores needed on the Core Cutter touchscreen and loads in the first core, the machine then measures the core and automatically trims the spare 8mm (or whatever) off the core before making the other cuts needed in order to produce four cores that are exactly 500mm in length.  There is no scrap to be removed from the core gripper / anvil.

If the customer requires 300mm cores they buy in 2100mm parent cores with a minus tolerance of 0mm and a plus tolerance of 10mm.  Again our Core Cutter automatically works out how much trim to take off and then cuts the required number of 300mm cores with no waste (apart from a small trim that will always measure less than 10mm).

Buying in a few different lengths of parent cores sounds like it might create work for your warehouse and / or machine operators, but some core suppliers will print core sizes on the cores they supply to you, thereby simplifying the pre-job core selection process.

We do not recommend using tape to join scrap cores as the resulting cores can become unstable, damaging to materials wound on them and even dangerous to machine operators.

By using tape to join scrap cores you are introducing plastics into your processes, which in turn can contaminate your recycling.