Flexibility is key to sheeter success

“With all the uncertainties in the world economy and the resultant nervousness of customers faced with decisions on capital expenditure, close enough is no longer good enough,” says Valmet Converting’s Steve Brimble. “Business managers face tougher and tougher investment parameters with reduced cost and payback limits.

“The challenge this presents to a machinery manufacturer is to create a product range with sufficient flexibility to cater to a wide range of applications whilst maintaining a short delivery period and competitive pricing. Fortunately, our senior management were forward in their thinking and pressed engineers to develop an ever more flexible design strategy,” he explains.

A good example of the benefits of this strategy is the machine recently supplied to Graphic Finishers in Montreal, Canada, he claims. The customer needed to convert a wide range of board substrates with quite a demanding production capacity. Just to make things a little more challenging the machine was required as quickly as possible. After extensive discussions between Ray Faust, of Graphic Finishers, and Bob Preddy, Valmet Converting USA sales manager, a package was reached by using standard design modules in an order not previously assembled. The machine was shipped in 13 weeks from the handshake on the order.

Within one month an identical enquiry was received and an order placed from a major Australian folding carton manufacturer. Another for instance came when Danish carton manufacturer Petersen Beck enquired about a machine with non-stop running characteristics and an in-line flexo printing press. “Once again the delivery period was challenging, as were the technical requirements. However, the flexibility of machine design allowed automatic splicing on the unwind and on the run pallet change to be offered without major cost or delivery penalties,” adds Steve Brimble.

“As a large percentage of our sheeters are sold to trade converters, it is important that the machine is able to run on a large range of substrates. This allows the converter to generate revenue from as wide a customer base as possible.”

The modular design approach helps here too. When Valmet supplied a TSK to Connemara Converting, company owner Charlie Connolly made it clear how flexible the machine needed to be. Running for over a year, it successfully sheets a wide range of paper and board, plastics films and metalized pre-printed and hologram material to register with an accuracy of within 0.15mm, claims the company

Aimed at high volume converters and small to medium sized mills the TSKS is launched at CMM. With a web width of 1,650mm and a maximum speed of 350m/min, it features a new delivery section which “will not only provide faster running speeds, but also make rapid order changes much easier”. Valmet is also planning to launch a machine in the high precision cut to register sheeters sector this year. It will be aimed at solving problems encountered by label converters looking for faster press running speeds and lower downtime coupled with ever reducing material thickness and the introduction of plastics substrates.

More information from Steve Brimble, Valmet Atlas – TEL: +44 (0)1767 310100. EMAIL: sales.titan@valmet.com

Dual rotary at CMM

Körber PaperLink North America, single source supplier of systems solutions for cut-size sheeting and packaging, for the first time at CMM will demonstrate its SHM 1450 dual rotary sheeter.

The SHM 1450 Series, manufactured by Pemco, of Sheboygan, Wisconsin, is available in three models (dual rotary, high speed and compact). They are flexible, multipurpose sheeters designed to provide “high quality and efficient sheeting of a wide range of materials including paper, board, films, foils and plastics”. The SHM 1650, with a maximum web width of 1,650 mm, is also available.

The SHM 1450 dual rotary sheeter is equipped with ECH Will’s dual rotary cross cutting technology. With a maximum web width of 1,450mm, it is said to be capable of a wide range of cut-off lengths from cut-size dimensions to folio sizes.

More information from Pemco – TEL: +1 920 458 2500. WEBSITE: www.willpemco.com

High ROI claimed

High production efficiency and low capital investment give most Accura installations a payback period of less than two years and a high rate of return on investment, claims Philippines based Accuratech Machine Industries.

Premiered at Drupa, the Accura Apex 140 sheeter is claimed to convert paper and board (45 – 500g/m2) at a maximum speed of 400 cuts/min up to 250m/min. The Accura Apex 165 sheeter (65in) was launched at IPEX.

The range uses “the best European, American and Japanese brands for its parts and components”, yet is said to cost only a fraction of its German, British and American counterparts with approximately the same technical specifications. In fact, claims the company, it may be less than half the cost of a used European sheeter with the same capacity.

The sheeter section features a Festo pneumatic system from Germany, equipped with independent air pressure regulators to ensure wrinkle-free infeed. A helical knife on an upper rotary drum cuts against a fixed lower knife with a scissor type cutting action for quiet operation. The knife drum is statically balanced and fitted with an independent braking system.

More information from Cris Marcaida, Accuratech – TEL: Cris Marcaida, TEL: +63 2 6337510. EMAIL: accura@pacific.net.ph WEBSITE: www.accuramachines.com