Producer of Plastic Netting Upgrades Unwind Stands with Simple Retrofit System
Recently a producer of plastic netting for the construction
and packaging industry approached Double E regarding their unwind
system. The customer uses unwind stations to feed film into their
knitting machines. These unwind stations were found to be very
inefficient due to the time it took to load and unload the rolls. The
system also had tension control problems causing the web to break
unexpectedly. This resulted in up to four to five hours of down time to
re-configure the knitting machine. The roll stand had a manual braking
system but was not setup to detect a signal from the machine which made
it difficult to make adjustments to the tension while the web was
running. Safety was also a growing concern since the shaft laid in
shallow nylon groove rather than being held securely to the stand.
For this application, Double E
engineered a simple and efficient system that would easily bolt onto
custom stands built by the customer. This system consisted of a DG-2000
aluminum bladder shaft, a pneumatic brake, and two pedestal mounted
safety chucks with side-lay adjustment. The lightweight aluminum shaft
allowed the customer to quickly and easily change out rolls while the
safety chucks held those rolls in place. The pneumatic brake worked
seamlessly in regulating tension by taking a signal from the machine and
automatically applying just the right amount of resistance to keep the
web at a constant speed.
Double E provided this basic system
to four of the customers knitting machines and the customer has since
expressed satisfaction with the performance of the new unwind sections.
Productivity has increased due to the more efficient roll changes and
profit loss has decreased due the elimination of web breaks. Safety is
no longer a concern since the new side-lay safety chucks hold the shafts
securely in place.
