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Bryce Corporation order another two Universal Converting Equipment X8 Slitter Rewinders at K Exhibition

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Following a meeting at K 2022 in Dusseldorf, Bryce Corporation has ordered another two Universal X8 slitting machines from Universal Converting Equipment. The Universal X8 is a highly automated slitting machine. This new order follows on from a major installation of an $8 million Automated Slitting Operation at the Bryce, Searcy, AR, USA facility based on Universal X8 slitting machines.

Universal X8 and Bryce Corporation

Mike Wilkinson, Sales Executive of Universal Converting Equipment commented, “I have known The Bryce Corporation for over 40 years and have sold them a lot of equipment over that time. The Universal X8 is a unique machine in how technology has been used to overcome problems that have previously prevented higher productivity. It is great to stand and watch the machine producing set after set of finished rolls without an operator present. The Bryce Corporation has a tradition of investing in tomorrow’s technology to stay at the forefront in the flexible food packaging industry. This new order has followed the success of the recently installed automated slitting and roll handling system at Bryce.”

Sean Bowie, President, Bryce Corporation said “The Bryce Corporation is committed to making long-term investment decisions to ensure they have the Best-in-Class processing equipment to cope with the increased demands from our customers. One of the greatest benefits of this system is the reduced amount of manual lifting required by our value stream team members. We have also recently announced the start of building a new factory in Searcy that will employ an additional 142 people. The novel ideas from Universal Converting Equipment fit with our desire to look for next-generation solutions rather than buying the status quo.

This new order follows the recent installation of an Automated Slitting Operation at the Searcy, AR, USA location of Bryce Corporation. Bryce is a major US supplier of flexible food packaging with the capability to serve both the long-run and short-run production orders. Bryce’s previous slitting operation did not meet the needs of their growing markets. They needed machines with automatic set up to allow job changes in a few minutes together with minimal stop time on completion of a set of finished rolls. Most importantly, the slitting machines had to produce high-quality rolls consistently with minimal operator lifting and intervention.

Universal Converting Equipment is a UK-based manufacturer of slitting and rewinding machines. It was established over 25 years ago and has been developing automation systems for slitting machines from the start. The Universal X8 slitting machine is the culmination of that development. Commenting on the X8 development, Alan Jones, Director said “Efficiency is achieved through attention to detail. We keep looking for processes that can be automated to ensure high quality, consistent operation. For example, all our machines include automatic knife positioning of rotary shear knives and razor blades. We have added automatic control of depth and sideloading of shear knives with micrometer feedback to show the operator the exact position and allow adjustment of both critical parameters whilst the machine is running. Optimum knife setting equals high-quality slits and long blade life. All the functions relating to unloading finished rolls and restarting the machines are automated, so the machine runs without an operator at the rewind. The Universal X8 has been a huge development process. Bryce understood the concepts and the thinking behind the systems on the X8 machine and was prepared to invest in machines that did not conform to the old industry standard. They have seen the results of this installation and followed on with a new order for a further two machines.”

The installation and commissioning of the $8 million Automated Slitting Operation have been overseen by Andy Pratt, Vice President of Manufacturing at Bryce plus his team of Engineers. Andy Pratt commented, “We had some very challenging requirements for our new slitting facility involving major improvements in safety, efficiency, and quality. Universal listened and proposed a solution which was different to other suppliers. All the processes relating to unloading, labelling, bagging and palletizing the finished rolls, along with reloading and positioning the cores and restarting the machine are completely automated with this system. We are excited by the efficiency figures being achieved. The ongoing support from Universal has been excellent during the commissioning phase and since we have been in operation.”

Find out more about the Universal X8 Slitter Rewinder…

Skymark re-enforce reputation as a flexible packaging innovator with the purchase of a Universal X6 Laser Perforator

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Since forming in 1987 Skymark Packaging Ltd have strived to put themselves at the forefront of innovation. In the competitive world of flexible packaging Skymark are one of a select group of companies who are prepared to prove their commitment to constant innovation. One of the most tangible ways that Skymark has made their position clear is by publicly announcing details of investment programs. The company recently announced that they have invested in a Universal X6 Laser perforation Slitter Rewinder.

The Universal X6 Laser perforation Slitter Rewinder gives Skymark the capacity to process a wide range of flexible packaging films. During the slitting process films can be either perforated to modify the atmosphere within the package or scored to make packing easier to open for the consumer.

The laser scoring technology on the universal X6 enables packaging films to be perforated to a high level of accuracy at speeds of 350m/min. This gives Skymark the ability to selectively score one or more layers of laminated film. This enables the production of ‘easy peel’ packaging that won’t compromise the barrier properties of the complete packaging. Commenting on the investment, Skymark Director, Paul Neath said, “The investment in laser perforation and scoring capacity is part of a larger expansion programme. We chose Universal as they are able to offer local support for both the slitting machine and the Rofin laser system. Universal also have over 20 years experience with similar laser systems”

In addition to laser perforation and scoring technology, the universal X6 is fitted with the same hyper-productivity technologies as the popular X6 Slitter Rewinder. Including automatic knife and core positioning. Other common features, including on-screen diagnostics and remote support ensure that the X6 is consistently productive. As with all Universal Slitters the new Universal X6 at Skymark comes with free lifetime support.

2017 has been a year of great progress for Skymark Packaging Ltd. News of the purchase of an X6 closely followed news of an important award for sustainability. The new machinery will be installed at the Skymark facility at Scunthorpe in the UK. Alan Jones, Managing Director of Universal Converting Equipment commented “The growth of Skymark is mirrored by the growth of Universal. Having acquired additional buildings, Universal is set to double its output of X6 slitter rewinders in 2018. Although most of the machines are exported it is always good to supply companies that are closer to home.”

Find out more about the Universal X6lp…

X6lp Laser slitter rewinder

Parkside Flexibles invest in two Universal X6 slitting machines for Malaysia and the UK

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Universal X6 Slitting Machine

Parkside Flexibles are a leading edge flexographic printer with manufacturing in the UK and Malaysia. As a supplier to global brands, Parkside uses advanced processing systems to create value added packaging. This requires the highest quality slit rolls to send to its customers. In many cases, the complex structures are difficult to process and required a long setup to achieve satisfactory results.

Parkside invested in two Universal X6 slitter rewinders to meet these developing needs. The Universal X6 slitting machine has a range of features to ensure product consistency and minimise changeover times. Some of the Parkside laminates, including aluminium foil based structures, were particularly difficult to achieve satisfactory results. Key to the success of the project were the following machine features:

  • Tension control – The Universal X6 has closed loop rewind tension control with load cells providing feedback. This ensures that the winding tension is exactly as required, especially through machine acceleration and deceleration. Once the ideal settings for the material were found on the first machine, they were copied to the recipe system of the second machine which then worked immediately.
  • X-Slit slitting system – This system uses automatic positioning to control the position of knives and anvils to very tight tolerances. It can also automatically position razor blades. A closed loop measuring system is used to set the sideload on the shear knives. A tension zone through the slitting section allows the slitting tension to be optimised. Adjustable height rollers are used to set the amount of wrap around the cutting shaft to suit the material type being processed.
  • Wrinkle free operation – The Universal X6 slitter rewinder has a “Quad” wrap material drive system to isolate tension between the unwind and rewind. Unlike nip roller and vacuum roller based systems you do not have slippage, scratches, noise, energy wastage or crease formation.
  • Constant geometry contact rollers – unlike pivoting lay on rollers, the constant geometry contact rollers move horizontally as the rewind roll increases in size. The rollers are built into a rigid structure so they always stay parallel giving the best quality finished rolls.
  • Print repeat measurement – built into the X6 slitter rewinder is a system to measure the length of each print repeat and then generate a report and graph showing the variability through the roll

Both X6 machines were delivered on time with a Universal engineer commissioning the machines and providing training. Both machines have FREE telephone and internet based support for the life of the machines.

Commenting on the installations, Alan Jones, Managing Director of Universal Converting Equipment said:”Parkside challenged us with some of their requirements. Although the Universal X6 machines supplied to Parkside were our standard model, some of their specifications had tighter tolerances than normal. It was very satisfying when Parkside visited for the machine acceptance trials that the products were all processed without problems. The X-slit slitting system provides a lot of flexibility as well as fast and accurate set up. Rather than dedicating products to machines, Parkside found they could run their range of materials through the X6 without problems. Precise knife setting and closed loop control ensures reproducible results.”

Brian Harper, Global Technical Manager, Parkside Flexibles added “At Parkside, we take on technically difficult projects. Universal rose to the challenge and we have been extremely pleased with the results. From day one, the machines have been producing product of a quality we could not achieve consistently on our other slitting machines. Universal have worked with us to optimise the settings and due to the closed loop control systems we can swap recipes between machines and achieve identical results.”

Lean Flexibles Install a High Performance Universal X6 Slitting Machine

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Slitter operatorsLean Flexibles are a fast growing supplier and contract slitter of flexible packaging materials based at Hinckley, UK. Lean offer short lead time supply of a range of materials including PET, OPP, PE, CPP and multi-layer laminates. In choosing the Universal X6 slitting machine, Lean needed a wider web machine which minimised job set up times, produced consistent high quality rolls and was able to run at high speed.

The Universal X6 machine is designed for processing flexible materials. A typical specification includes digital web guiding, automatic knife setting (Computaslit), additional tension zone through slitting, closed loop rewind tension control, constant geometry contact rollers, automatic core alignment (Computacore) and a running speed of 600m/min. The machine is designed to be simple to operate with a 22inch touch screen interface. A typical changeover, including setting 20 shear knives can take less than two minutes making the machine ideal for short run work. The integrated drive and control system offers precision and repeatability with extensive diagnostics including dynamic circuit diagrams. All this performance in a machine with a small footprint.

Commenting on the investment, Darren Beardsley, Technical Director of Lean Flexibles said “To achieve our business objectives, we needed productivity, consistency,reliability and the ability to process thin extensible films through to rigid APET films.The Universal X6 has met our requirements and more. Setting shear knives used to take two people to lift the cutter shaft out and back in and the knives would take a long time to set. Now we programme the next slit pattern whilst the machine is running. Once the machine stops, the knives are set faster than we can load a new parent roll into the machine. The additional tension zone through slitting has helped us achieve consistently good quality slit edges even when running low rewind tensions. During our acceptance trials at Universal, we tailored the machine to our specific requirements, ran a range of materials and saved the settings in the recipe system. With load cell measurement of rewind tensions we know that we can return to these settings and achieve exactly the same tension profile allowing us to run at 600m/min with confidence.”

Alan Jones, MD, Universal Converting Equipment added “Lean chose to spend more than they originally planned by investing in technology that will pay back for years to come. To compete in their markets they needed to minimise downtime and maximise running speed in the knowledge that rolls will always be good quality. This is what the Universal X6 has been designed to achieve year after year. Although the X6 incorporates a lot of technology, it is based on fundamental design principles – keep the web path as short as possible, use feedback devices to ensure the machine is doing exactly as required, make the structure rigid so alignment stays perfect and ensure the machine is easy to set up and operate. Load cell tension feedback, automatic knife positioning and core alignment dramatically reduces downtime and increases the time the machine is making money.”

Find out more about the X6 Flexible Packaging Slitter…

Find out more about Lean Flexibles…