Lead operator Laura Anderson checks roll width on Ravyen's new Deacro C800A slitter/rewinder.

When Rayven, Inc., found the market for its ReproFilm slipping away, the company didn't simply add more products; Rayven reinvented itself using the expertise it learned from making reprographic films since the 1970s.

“The products are not all that different, it's the markets that changed,” president Joe Heinemann explains. Today, St. Paul, MN-based Rayven boasts that it is a leading provider of laminating, coating and converting services with a tremendous business selling release liners.

While Heinemann is tight-lipped about the exact numbers, he does say that the company's annual sales are around $10 million. Its release-liner business has grown 5 to 10 percent year over year, and Heinemann predicts even better growth ahead. “Release liners have been growing at a phenomenal rate,” he comments. “We're estimating a 30 to 40 percent growth in release-liner sales for the next year. About 40 percent of our current business is in manufacturing and selling release liners; two years ago, probably 30 percent of our business was in release liners.”

Fueling that growth, in particular, is the company's Any-Pak release liner—an envelope- and pouch-sealing component. Heinemann says, “We make that little strip you peel off of a shipping envelope.”

With its 40,000-sq-ft plant and 50 employees, Rayven has significant capacity. Yet, the company still was experiencing a bottleneck in its Any-Pak manufacturing process. “For us, there was a bottleneck at the slitting part of the manufacturing line,” Heinemann explains. Therefore, the converter started searching for a seventh slitter to join its equipment stable.

With an eye continuously on potential markets, Rayven began its search by first looking at customer feedback about the Any-Pak line. These release liners are stock products that allow envelope and pouch manufacturers to avoid the long turnaround times associated with custom-manufactured strips. Although customers were eagerly buying the product, driving Rayven to add slitting capacity, they also indicated interest in an even narrower product—as slim as 0.75 in. The new slitter would need to not only increase production capacity but also slit the 60-in. rolls of lightweight, rather slippery film to strips less than an inch wide.

Each of Rayven's slitters hails from a different manufacturer. Demonstrating his lighthearted demeanor, Heinemann quips, “We're an equal opportunity buyer. We have other slitters from many different companies such as Dusenbery, Arrow and Cameron.” The newest slitter would join a Cameron (www.elitecameron.com) duplex minimum gap center-wind slitter, an Arrow 398 surface-wind razor slitter for thin films, a Dusenbery (www.dusenbery.com) turret center-wind slitter, a Bobst Titan SR5 (www.bobstgroup.com) high-speed duplex center-wind slitter, a Geometric duplex center-wind slitter, and a La Meccanica (www.lameccfumagalli.com/index_eng.htm) simplex surface-wind shear-cut slitter.

“When it came time to purchase the seventh slitter, we looked around the industry,” Heinemann explains. “It's very difficult to find manufacturers that would make a machine that would slit down to 0.75-in.-wide material. Most of the manufacturers would go down to only 1-in.-wide strips. Deacro said we can do it, and here's how we can do it.”

Specifically, Deacro (www.deacro.com) demonstrated its C800A duplex center-wind unit's ability to slit the Any-Pak release liner down to 0.75-in.-wide at an average speed of 1,200 fpm (equal to 500 linear miles of the narrow liner per hour.) According to Deacro Industries sales manager Keith W. Hamilton, Rayven's slitter was configured with three different features specifically for optimal narrow-web slitting/rewinding of light-gauge, unsupported film: servo lay-on roller, roll-lock differential air shafts with a core-shoe locating system, and closed-loop rewind tension technologies.

“Deacro's servo-actuated lay-on technology allows Rayven to rewind using an individually loaded lay-on roller on each rewind roll,” Hamilton explains. “This provides control with compensation for roll-diameter variations. Deacro's Roll Lock Differential Air Shafts are ideal for tension-sensitive materials. Rayven's machine features a core-shoe locating system to accurately position cores for rapid and accurate setup. The core-lock design of the roll-lock shafts ensures maximum core stability for the narrow slits even when rewinding at high web speeds and large rewind diameters.”

But, it's the closed-loop tension control that has Heinemann excited. “The technology of the center-winding slitters hasn't changed over the years,” he says. “Yes, the electronics have changed. But, the mechanics haven't really changed, with the exception of closed-loop tension control. It actually measures the tension and adjusts the machine accordingly. I would say this new technology is one that very few slitters on the market have. The Deacro's really unique because its closed-loop tension control allows it to slit the very narrow and very slippery materials that we slit.”

Since the Deacro Model 800A's installation in September 2007, the company has enjoyed a marked increase in productivity. “It outproduces our old machines as much as 2:1,” Heinemann remarks. “And, we're still learning about its capabilities.”

Excited by the sales opportunities presented by the new slitter, Rayven sales and marketing director Rick Mercado adds, “The addition of the Deacro with its superior speed and tension control will allow us to more than double our Any-Pak release-liner capacity.”

With the production bottleneck gone, Rayven expects to meet its ROI estimates of 28 to 30 months. But, Heinemann believes the slitter already has paid for itself. “Because the machine allows us to produce and ship more in less time, it opens up a lot of opportunity to take on new business. And, how do you measure that?”