Blog consolidation

As of this moment all new news and blog posts will be posted on at www.universalconvertingequipment.com and this blog will no longer be updated.

New range of hot melt adhesive tanks increase coating and laminating efficiency

ITW Dynatec have have announced their next generation of hot melt adhesive supply units, the Dynamelt™ S Series.  One of the key features of the new range of glue supply units is improved energy efficiency, which fits in very well with the energy efficient features that are are designing into all of the machinery that we manufacture.

Find out more about efficient coating.
For more information on how the new range of ITW Dynatec supply tanks (also sold through our sister company Universal Adhesives Limited) can help you reduce energy usage please read the following article on our main website - https://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/energy-efficient-adhesive-coating

Slitter energy efficiency

Slitter energy efficiency continues to be at the forefront of our minds here at Universal, and is increasingly popping up in converting industry news sources.
We’d like to encourage you to go and read ‘Reducing energy consumption and costs with a Slitter Rewinder’ on our company website, but in the meantime here’s a quick ‘energy reduction top five’ to whet your appetite:

1. Using electric drives instead of hydraulics
   We use electric drives instead of hydraulics on our converting machinery - hydraulics can be ‘on’ constantly, whereas electric motors only consume energy when they are actually doing something.
2. Regenerative brake energy
   Whenever possible we design our winding and slitting machines to use a motor to brake the material. The motor acts as a generator supplying energy generated by the unwind section to power the rewind section.
3. Accurate slitter setup to reduce wastage
   Using automatic knife setting, laser core alignment and web-guiding systems (among many others) our cutting machines minimise the amount of waste material created by inaccurate setting.
4. High efficiency AC motors
   The efficiency of AC motors is continually being improved. To benefit from this we use high efficiency AC motors in our machines and control systems.
5. Building machinery to recycle waste
   Our salvage winders (also known as doctor rewinders) are designed to reprocess material or ‘bad rolls’ that would otherwise be discarded as waste.  Put simply our salvage winders turn waste material into usable, saleable rolls.  We also integrate inspection systems into our salvage winders to ensure that only un-usable material is discarded.

Find out more about slitter energy savings...

Slitter glossary

Anyone who has spent any time in the packaging or converting industry will have noticed that not all companies and individuals use the same technical terms.  One man's unwind is another man's master roller, for example.  Naturally the lack of standardisation can cause some confusion, so as something of an experiment we have published a 'slitter glossary' on our website over at http://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/about-universal/slitter-glossary

The slitter glossary will be an ongoing project, so if you want to suggest a term then please get in touch...

Small slitter for sale! (used)

Now in stock - this neat little low cost slitter.  This slitter has been used before but is in excellent condition, it has been used for slitting foil in the past and therefore has excellent tension control.  The price is quite cheap considering the capability of this little machine.

Visit the our website at https://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/about-universal/stock-list/spas-used-slitter to get the fill specification and to see more photos.

Used Slitter

Slitter and converter efficiency

Slitter efficiency is a hot topic in the converting industry; slitter rewinders are big industrial machines that traditionally have used a lot of energy in their operation.  We have recently published two press releases detailing what we're doing to help our customers reduce their energy consumption:

• Minimised energy usage – ideas for efficient winding... 
• Slitter web guiding made simpler and greener... 

Actively reducing energy useage

We have had a logo designed that we will be applying to some of our literature to declare our intention to actively reduce the amount of energy required to run the converting machinery that we develop and manufacture.

Used slitter rewinders for sale

February has been a very busy month here at Universal Converting Equipment and March is looking even better! 

We currently have four used slitter rewinders in stock, each are available at short notice and are available for inspection right now.

Current used Slitter Rewinder stock:

• Ochsner UG1650+50 Slitter Rewinder
• Ochsner UR1600 Slitter Rewinder
• Atlas TS350 Turret Slitting Machine
• Till and plotter roll slitter rewinder  

The two Ochsner slitter rewinders are very new and the Atlas has been extentively upgraded, all of these machines are heavy duty very well engineered machines.


As ever if you'd like to know more about any of our machines please get in touch with us through our website at https://www.universalconvertingequipment.com/

FOR SALE - Atlas TS350 Turret Slitting Machine

We have a fully refurbished TS350 Turret slitting machine available for sale. It has been mechanically refurbished including new bearings and new roller coverings. A new drive system has been added with SSD drives.

A new Siemens PLC controls the machine with a touch screen operator interface. A ConverterGuide 4 Digital guider has been fitted. This machine will outperform a lot of new machines. It has our latest ball lock differential shafts and our Computacore laser core alignment system making set up and changes very quick and easy.

The machine is 1300mm wide with a shafted unwind. Access to the knives is easy from the walkway between the unwind and the rewind. The machine has rotary shear knives and also razor slitting.

MACtac U.K. Ltd improve both quality and customer service by installing the latest highly automated X9 Slitter Rewinder from Ipswich based Universal Converting Equipment.

Universal Converting Equipment have sold a highly automated duplex centre wind Slitter to Bemis group company, MACtac U.K. Ltd for use at their Northampton facility.

MACtac U.K. have a reputation for fast delivery of quality, label product, maintaining this requires periodic investment in emerging technologies.

“When the decision to invest in a new slitter rewinder was taken, our principle considerations were short run productivity and the capability to process label stock and some open adhesive substrates - The Universal X9 with its auto-knife setting, laser core-alignment, auto-roll offloading and automatic tension control (along with the Universal’s experience in handling label stock) made Universal’s X9 a clear contender in our procurement process.  The more aspects of the converting process that we can automate, the better service and quality we can offer our customers.” says Rachel Barton of MACtac U.K.



“Working with our sister company Universal Adhesive Systems Limited has given us considerable experience in handling label stock and substrates with open adhesives.  We applied our experience to ensure issues surrounding knife cleaning, web-path geometry and roller covering performance were minimised.  Also the X9 features closed loop rewind tension (load cells) control as standard, this always gives superior results compares to equipment with open loop control.” says Universal Converting Equipment Technical Director Dave Ward.

Knife setting control panel

The transport that delivered the new Universal X9 also removed the redundant slitter, it was therefore essential that the new slitter was commissioned immediately and without problems.  This was achieved and throughout the the commissioning phase not a single scrap roll was produced.

Operator assisting camera systems

More information - www.universalx9.co.uk

Lithium ion and solar cell manufacturers increasingly embracing web processes

Universal Converting Equipment are exploiting their substantial knowledge in web-based manufacturing processes to facilitate customers’ development in emerging energy technologies.

Lithium Ion and Solar Cell manufacture are two fields enjoying exponential expansion and with such rapid expansion comes a greatly increased need for innovative manufacture processes.  Universal’s extensive experience in developing new manufacture processes places the company in an increasingly strengthened position when it comes to assisting Lithium Ion and Solar Cell manufacturers in refining and improving product lines.

“Lithium Ion and Solar Cell technologies have proven themselves and are widely accepted by both manufactures and end-consumers as being ‘the way forward’.  We specialise in integrating technologies such as web handling, tension control and coating, with other systems to provide a complete production cell offering an efficient and cost effective solution to the processes required to manufacture these emerging products. One of the challenges is reducing the manufacturing cost of these products to increase their acceptability.” says Managing Director Alan Jones.