Our exclusive fifth annual Slitter/Rewinder Technology Report looks at six innovative companies and their applications of the latest technology for this all-important converting process. From makers of unprinted primary substrates for in-house or outside use to high-tech adhesive tapes and flexo-printed plastic webs, these businesses prove once again that market success relies on being ready with cutting-edge technology to serve customers today—and tomorrow.

Expanding its slitting/rewinding capabilities to include a wider variety of finished rolls became a priority for synthetic-paper maker Yupo Corporation America when customers increasingly demanded narrower rolls.

Working through contract converters, the company's Chesapeake, VA, plant had difficulty with lead times and service until it moved slitting in-house with the April 2002 installation of a Dusenbery Worldwide (Randolph, NJ) Model 280 slitter/rewinder. The new machine joins a primary slitter/rewinder, which deals predominantly with output from YUPO's synthetic-paper manufacturing line, creating feed stock for the Model 280.

"We worked a long time and had several starts over a few years trying to decide what model would give us the best performance," says YUPO VP of manufacturing Bob Van Horne. "But we were very pleased; we made a decision and did some testing prior to bringing it in."

The Dusenbery Worldwide system shear-cuts YUPO synthetic paper exclusively, in thickness from 80-300 microns. Parent rolls are typically 66 in. wide with diameters in the mid-70 in. range. Finished rolls are slit down to widths anywhere from 6-65 in. and diameters usually under 20 in.

Intended to help the company deal with all customers in-house, the new slitter/rewinder is said to help cut delivery time, provide on-demand sample fulfillment and ensure the quality of finished materials. Yupo employees adjusted to the new equipment very easily, Van Horne says, with a one- to three-day session where Dusenberry Worldwide technicians verified the installation and provided training.

Demand for narrow-width rolls of Yupo synthetic papers is a direct result of the converter's April 2002 purchase of Kimberly-Clark Corp.'s In-Mold Label and Non-Label Specialty Paper business. Formerly under the Kimdura® brand, products are now sold as YUPO®.

The buyout extends Yupo's reach from the commercial-printing industry to the technical papers market for packaging and converting. The synthetic material has found broad applications as waterproof, weather-resistant, outdoor labels and tags. Similarly wear-resistant applications in in-mold labeling for household-care packaging is another target market.

The Chesapeake plant is very pleased with the ease and efficiency of the Dusenbery 280 slitter/rewinder, Van Horne says. "We plugged it in, and it just worked," he says. "It wasn't quite that simple; there was installation. We jokingly called it 'plug and play,' but virtually from the first rolls it's been great."

With its headquarters moving to a new 50,000-sq-ft building in Swedesboro, NJ, and a new 72-in. duplex slitter/rewinder, Matthias Paper Corp. is ready to slit a wider range of products, and provide the best in slitting/rewinding, sheeting, and guillotine cutting in the area.

Matthias specializes in products for customers requiring first-quality paper, paperboard, foil, film and synthetics cut to specific sizes. Buyers include rigid-box and folding-carton makers, printers, stationery manufacturers and tag and label converters. Matthias converts material ranging from 12-lb tissue to 30-pt board. In addition, it also runs non-woven textiles, HDPE films, foil and a variety of synthetic products.

Why a new slitter? "The reason for the purchase was to upgrade current slitters and be capable of slitting a wider range of products," says company principal John R. Matthias. It needed a slitter/rewinder designed specifically for the various substrates mentioned, he says.

With that in mind, Matthias selected the REM Manufacturing (Long Valley, NJ) Model 3750, shear-cut, duplex slitter/rewinder. "Our primary concern was purchasing a machine to give us the ability to convert a wide range of materials. The 3750 has the capability to drive the unwind in a low range of pounds per linear in.—down to 0.25 PLI. By the same token, the brake system allows for a range of 1 to 5 PLI," says Matthias.

This REM model has a maximum web width of 72 in. and a minimum slit width of 1 in. The maximum roll diameter on the unwind is 60 in. and the maximum rewind diameter is 48 in. Rewind methods are center-surface, locked-core and differential. Unwind core sizes are 3, 6, 8 and 12 in.; rewind core sizes are 1-1/8 and 3 in.

Matthias Paper was sold on REM's engineering and manufacturing skills. Additionally, says Matthias, the vendor has the know-how to provide options to the basic machine. "We feel they delivered a well-engineered and well-built machine," he says. "Service, parts and assistance are readily available, and we look forward to purchasing additional REM equipment. REM Manufacturing is located in New Jersey, which is important to us for service and parts. It was also convenient for the assistance they provided during training."

Special features of the machine are pneumatic shear-cut knives with the ability to use Class I or II knives. Rewind tension/taper and center-surface are controlled through the slitter's PLC and operator interface. The maximum speed is 1,250 fpm.

Like many converters, Phoenix-based Liberty Paper Products LLC, wants to become more competitive. Unlike many, however, Liberty managers decided to take action now, and make the necessary capital investment, rather than wait for the overall converting industry to improve. In doing so, they hope to get a leg up on the competition.

First on the wish list was a new slitter/rewinder, and Liberty made the choice to purchase and install a new 54-in. JJS semi-automatic slitter from Jennerjahn Machine (Matthews, IN). The new machine would take its place along with two older Goebel S&W machines already in use at Liberty.

"To be more competitive in the markets we currently serve, as well as exploring other areas, we needed a slitter that would help us boost output per shift, and free up the operators' time," says Mike Rapier, president and owner. According to Rapier, Liberty's main market is 2-ply and thermal papers for ATMs, credit card receipts, etc. Its production is geared to customer-order demand, rather than manufacturing to inventory and is shipped as soon as rolls come off the slitter. Five principal widths include 31/8-, 31/4-, 21/4-, 23/4-, and 231/32-inches.

The slitter was installed in January 2002 and quickly showed its merit. "One of the most important features of the Jennerjahn machine is that it is computerized, and therefore keeps footage counts exact. The JJS-54 also produces a better-quality products," says Rapier. "This is in addition to the fact that the unit is able to run at an average speed of about 2,000 fpm, which is much higher than our other units. The dancers and spreaders designed into the machine help maintain that speed.

"Another advantage is that the operator is less involved, because the machine performs a lot of the formerly manual tasks—such as removing finished product. The Jennerjahn automatically cuts, tabs, and ejects rolls so they can be packed," he says. Once the machine is set up, the operator's responsibility is reduced to keeping the cored mandrels in the auto-loader and the unwind stand or stands loaded with product.

Overall, the new slitter/rewinder is helping Liberty Paper accelerate its growth.

When it came time for growing flex-pack converter C-P Flexible Packaging, York, PA, to add slitter/ rewinder capacity, just one manufacturer's name came to mind. "Our first thought was Stanford," says Greg Collins, VP of manufacturing. "Although we have slitters from many different manufacturers, we've been the most impressed with Stanford." Supplier Stanford Products LLC is located in Salem, IL.

"Our finishing department manager, Todd Bricker, told me that our existing Stanford slitter had the least maintenance and the least downtime," Collins continues. "He also said that when we do need service, Stanford is the most responsive." Collins also said that according to longtime operator Jason Sprung, C-P's operators are eager to be assigned to the new slitter, due to its level of performance and features.

The new Model 3038 slitter/rewinder was installed in April 2002, and Collins says C-P Flexible Packaging managers expect the new unit to eventually facilitate a 20-25 percent productivity increase over existing equipment. Particularly noteworthy about the new slitter, according to Collins, is the newly designed roll pushers and unloading tree. "This new machine's overall layout and features make it very easy for our operators to use," he says. "The roll-handling equipment also makes it safer. All lifting is done at waist level."

The 3038's unwind and rewind system includes multi-position hydraulics, with optional right and left touchscreen-control stations to operate the hydraulics, speed, chuck-to-core alignment and web-guide jog control. On the rewind side, two telescoping roll pushers, with individual controls, expedite operator unloading to the roll tree. "When it came to making improvements to this model, the Stanford people really listened to what our operators had to say," says Collins. "It's a well-designed machine."

The new equipment and capacity will come in handy as C-P continues growing. C-P Flexible Packaging's new name (previously C-P Converters) reflects its further penetration into flexible packaging. Long a major player in flexibles for snack-makers, C-P is finding growing markets in baked goods, pasta, and trading-card overwraps.

Overall, Collins says that C-P has made significant capital-equipment investments over the last four years. "I've worked for several converters, large and small, and this is one company that is willing to make investments to stay competitive," says Collins. The new Stanford slitter is just the latest proof.

Tann Paper Ltd., Woodstock, NB, Canada, one of the leading North American makers of tipping bobbins used in manufacturing cigarettes, found the need for a fourth Goebel S&W rapid dI slitter (represented exclusively by Matik North America, W. Hartford, CT) to produce tighter tolerances at faster speeds.

The decision for the latest Goebel Schneid-und-Wickelsysteme slitter came easy for Greg Thornton, general manager of Tann Paper, and his team. "We've been running Goebel for 25 years. It's the best slitter on the market for our needs." As a matter of fact, within Tann's parent company Trierenberg Holding, there are more than 30 Goebel slitters being used.

Tann Paper has found the rapid dI to provide versatility, roll-structure and slit quality, slit accuracy, and roll-edge smoothness. These results come from the special machine arrangement including the Goebel slitting section with wrapped-around, bottom-cutter shaft and the unsupported center-driven, simplex-rewind system with minimal open web run between the slitting point and the rewinding point.

It wasn't much of a change from the old slitter to the new rapid d1 for the operators. "It's user-friendly, and our operators have adapted well," says Thornton.

Tann's individual bobbin slitters are designed to correspond to the width of the printing machines, and slitting accuracy is guaranteed by a lateral-edge control mechanism. For narrow bobbins of tipping and cigarette papers—with the global standard at 27-mm-wide, extremely accurate slit tolerances and very smooth roll edges are critical. Although Tann was able to meet these needs with its older models without much of a problem, the new rapid dI is capable of tight tolerances up to 4,921 fpm—if needed. "We're cutting +/-0.3 mm tolerance on the new slitter," says Thornton.

Along with the new rapid dI, Tann Paper also recently updated its three other Goebel slitters. "As long as you keep updating the machines, they will last forever," says Thornton.

In part to handle the doubling of capacity with its new high-speed Geometric coating line, converter Venture Tape Corp. has added a customized slitting/rewinding and packaging line to its Rockland, MA operation.

Centered on a fully-automated Guzzetti SpA (Turate, Italy) slitter/rewinder housed in a sound-proof enclosure, the equipment features a shaftless turret unwind, a choice of score, shear or razor cutting, and automatic trim-waste winding. It is equipped with Fife web guides, GE AC-vector drives, Mario Cotta America shear blades, Dienes pneumatic score blades, and a WonderWare MIS system.

"Venture chose the Guzzetti over other available systems because of the versatility it gave us," says Lew Cohen, president. "We're able to run both 3 and 11/2 in. ID cores with its dual core-loading systems."

The Guzzetti handles parent rolls up to 83 in. wide and diameters to 48 in. Slit rolls range from 11/2 to 4 in. wide and diameters of 3 to 10 in. Materials from 25-micron film to 400-micron Kraft tapes are processed. Overall, Venture runs plastic-film, paper and aluminum/ metal foil tapes, laminations and scrim-reinforced laminations on the slitter/rewinder.

"One of the major reasons we purchased [the Guzzetti] is for its turret-unwind system, which allows for minimum downtime," Cohen says. "This allows us to have two master rolls loaded at the same time; when one is finished, we can just move the turret to splice the second.

"With the Guzzetti we have a different type of unloading system than with our current machines," Cohen adds. "We're able to front-unload, which handles the rolls more gently than the methods we had been using."

Downstream, finished rolls are shrink-wrapped, labeled, collated and case-packed into cartons on the packaging line at the rate of 120 rolls/min. A robot takes over the final task of loading pallets. The entire system will run at full speed with as few as two operators.