Companies team up to make winding tape easier for everyone

The relationship between custom slitter/rewinder KT Industries Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind., and film extruder Wright Plastics Co., Prattville, Ala., reads like an open book.

By Lynanne Feilen, Managing Editor -- Converting Magazine, 9/1/1997

The relationship between custom slitter/rewinder KT Industries Inc., Fort Wayne, Ind., and film extruder Wright Plastics Co., Prattville, Ala., reads like an open book. When the parties came together the first question asked by both sides was "How can I make your life easier?" The answer to this question is central to understanding the relationship between the two companies.

According to Kevin Skinner, Wright's manager of sales and marketing, both Wright Plastics and KT Industries talk vendor and customer in the same breath. He says that, ideally, when the lines of communication are open, slight changed to each other's process can be made that make a world of differences in efficiency, and, in turn, the bottom line.

For example, Wright Plastics changes the size of its roll to optimize width for maximum throughput at KT Industries. KT, in turn, has asked Wright to ship its film rolls on end to enhance plant distribution.

KT Industries is a custom slitting and winding company that also designs and manufactures specialized converted products, which involves laminating, coating, and printing. A Canadian operation is located in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Each facility uses custom-developed equipment and production processes to convert films, foils, papers, nonwovens and elastomers for the trade. KT can slit using razor, score and shear techniques, yet it is KT's spooling expertise that caught the eye of Wright.

Wright Plastics, in business for 38 years, uses multilayer extrusion technology to service the laminated film and heavy-duty shipping sack markets. Opened in December 1996, its Prattville, Ala., facility extrudes plastic resin, line-prints using flexography in up to six colors and converts heavy-duty shipping sacks and food packaging. Its original Chamblee, Ga., facility manufactures industrial packaging.

KT Industries slits and spools Wright's 2 to 4-mil polyethylene into 1- to 3-in. tapes for its cus-tomer's drawstring needs. The secret to incredible end-use efficiency is KT's STEP-PACw technology. KT spent considerable capital refining the exclusive technology that winds tape by a computer-controlled "stepping" method. By minimizing the potential for edge drop-off and providing more dense ends, STEP-PAC technology improves "payoff' characteristics during an end-user's high-speed operations. The process allows materials to be wound into large spools (typically 20 in. in dia.), combining the structure of a pad with more length of material than is normally seen on a traverse spool.

What STEP-PAC means for Wright's customers is less downtime and enhanced productivity, be-cause of less frequent splicing than would be required with pads or pancakes. "Splices don't have the same integrity" as continuous rolls, says Skinner. Larger spools and fewer splices mean its customers can run draw tape continuously for 8 hours.

Skinner firmly believes in doing what you do best. He believes bringing slitting and winding in-house would "divert and dilute" Wright Plastics' resources. The company does not want to have to manage more technical process than it needs to, he says.

Continuing to do what it does best, KT Industries will install what is reportedly the largest custom slitting and winding machine in the world this fall in Fort Wayne, Ind. The machine is capable of slitting mill rolls up to 36 in. wide and 48 in. in diameter.

Skinner describes the people at KT Industries as "wonderful" to work with. For a service company like KT, there is no greater compliment.

More information from:

KT Industries Inc., 219/432-0027.