Film: the factory of the future

PARTNERSHIP Laem System and Eutro Log look ahead and join forces. Presented in a joint open house, the new high-performance slitter-rewinder and a fully automated system for the management of finished rolls.

From 22nd to 24th July Laem System held, at its headquarters in Casale Monferrato, an open house to present the new high performance turret slitter rewinder series TR4 for converters. This was done in collaboration with the Eutro Log of Cantù (CO), thus formalizing a partnership aimed at developing solutions for moving the finished reels, in order to avoid bottlenecks at the end of processing and provide complete systems, able to automatically perform all the operations demanded by users.
Operators who attended the event - including many big names of international converting - were able to see two mirror positioned models integrated with technologically advanced options, such as automatic positioning of knives and counter knives, the assisted positioning of the mandrels via motorised laser, the gluing of the finished rolls and the extraction of the same on an offloader, this too totally automated.
The contribution of Eutro Log has led to the development of an automated system for the management of finished rolls, with anthropomorphic robot and conveyor belts, that can control, pack in individual bags, label, and then palletize all coils from the two live demoed slitters. A system that improves work and processing quality, since the materials are never touched directly by the operators, also avoiding bottlenecks in the cutting and packaging sections, enabling a significant increase in productivity.
 
The new slitters. The TR4 series Laem System slitters, completely redesigned, are able to work continuously on three shifts, while ensuring the highest quality of the finished rolls thanks to a main S shaped drawing device with high winding angle with stretch tightened via latest generation frictioned shafts (from 3” to 6”). The pressure action gives max stability in the drawing of the material even at high speeds. The system presented during the open house operated at 600 m/min.
The TR4 series has been designed to reduce setting times, especially in the case of multiple slitting operations. This feature is due among other things to the reduced space between the last roller of the winding process and the winding shafts, but also to the transverse coil cutting unit, activated upon completion of the wrapping cycle. The cutting stations are available with assisted positioning via side control panel or with automatic positioning of the knives against the counter knives in order to minimize machine downtime.

The end of the line. The plant shown at Casale was completed with an automatic system for the discharge of the “daughter” coils from the Laem System slitters (both turret and rewind) on individual stations. This solution carries out handling operations, quality control, packaging and palletizing, while also seeing to product traceability and relevant reports.
The demonstration highlighted the main aspects of:
- automatic unloading of the slitters (safety, hygiene, identification);
- automatic packaging of every single coil;
- automatic palletizing;
- possibility of reduction of staff;
- product traceability, from cutting to shipment;
- dimensional control of each coil (range, diameter, weight);
- management of non-compliance of the coil (defects, out of tolerance, quality);
- production reports and supervision, local and remote).