Web cleaning
By meso design
In todays demanding converting environment all converters must achieve best possible performance from their slitting, rewinding, sheeting, embossing and other machines and systems. The goal is to maximise output, with minimal machine stops and with minimal material scrap and to the highest quality. After all, the quicker the current job is processed and despatched out of the front door, the quicker a new job can be bought in through the back door, mounted on the machine so that the cycle of productivity and hopefully, profitability can continue.
Non-stop operation is what every print shop and converting plant owner strives for, anything that interferes with this aim is more than just a minor annoyance. Dust, dirt, fibres, lint, insect debris affect runability the ability to produce a product at optimum machine speed, that is the speed touted by the machine supplier, the speed mentioned in the brochure and the speed needed to cover the cost of the equipment and other costs. Contaminants settling on a web can affect appearance and in some instances the functionality of a product, which means equipment must be halted in order that plates, impression rollers and other components can be cleaned.
Few would disagree that webs need to be cleaned, ideally consistently and cost effectively. To successfully clean a moving web the influences that cause the contamination in the first place must be considered first.
Often its easy to understand where a lot of contamination comes from, it comes from manufacturing processes, i.e., paper, corrugated and film production and from the processes involved in enabling a converter to make a more marketable product, the slitting, bag making, coating and laminating.
The environment itself is also a cause of contaminants, dirt and debris of one kind or another is everywhere about us, even a converters employees may be a source of contamination, unknowingly depositing hair, skin and even crumbs from food snacking onto a web. Static charging makes matters worse by holding contaminants fast to the web, so tight in fact that some methods of web cleaning have difficulty.
Static charges are generated from the contact and separation of the material as it passes over rollers and as its pulled from the feed roll. Web speeds complicate the issue since the faster the web speed the higher the static charge or attraction.
Incorporating anti-static bars Teknek contact cleaner addresses the problem of electrostatic charging, at the same time cleaning efficiently, down to the micron level, minimising product throwaway due to hickeys and other appearance affecting inconsistencies. The way in which a Teknek contact cleaner system operates is explained in detail elsewhere in this guide.
For converting applications Teknek contact cleaners are employed in credit card production, smart card and label converting, as well as for pouch manufacture, medical packaging, reel-to-reel screen printing, RFID production, thermoforming, food packaging, industrial coating and for envelope production and holographic embossing.
The range of contact web cleaners available include the Teknek NWP (Narrow Web Platform ), the MWC (Mini Web Cleaner ) and DCR Hand Rollers , etc. for wider web width the range of contact cleaner models available include the XCH series, employed in standard and bespoke applications, for example, coating/laminating and slitting. As well as in areas such as primary film production, PP, PE, PET, plastic membranes, sheets and films, and paper making, fibre glass and fibre processing, even metal working, i.e., copper foils, copper sheets.
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