At Unifoil Corporation, Passaic Park, NJ improved product quality and faster turnaround are the results of a $1.5 million capital investment in optically registered sheeting, steam sheeting and embossing equipment.
The company’s recent purchase includes a DFK Sheeter from Maxson Automatic Machinery Company, the Steam-Foil System from Thermo Web Systems and an embosser/calendar from Verduin Machinery.
Unifoil says the Maxson dual rotary knife sheeter is equipped with a web conditioning unit that utilizes web steering to keep the web perfectly positioned to enter the cutting section, producing a square sheet.
Once a part of Anaconda Aluminum Corporation, their experience with foil lamination goes back nearly thirty years. Today Unifoil is a $ 40 million global company and a leading innovator in laminating, coating and metallizing technology, producing eye-catching foils, films and now brilliant holographic materials as well. The company supplies the worldwide instant lottery industry and provides the packaging industry with a variety of well-recognized, award-winning product containers we use every day.
Product innovations are UniLustreâ, Holographic UniLustreâ and Registered Holographic UniLustreâ, proprietary, non-laminated, brilliant metallized papers and boards. Warner Lambert’s new Max Air brand of sugarless chewing gum and Estee Lauder’s holiday set up boxes, made with Holographic UniLustre, earned top honors from AIMCAL in 2000. Cadbury Schweppes Ltd.’s The Milk Tray, made with Double Rainbow Holographic UniLustre, took AIMCAL’s Y2K prestigious Peter Rigney Award. Current manufacturing activity includes high tech bus passes read by a scanning device for a major U.S. metropolitan city.
“Marketers use UniLustre for its high visual impact which increases sales. Graphic and package designers love its beauty and versatility. And printers and converters appreciate its manufacturability and printability,” says Joe Funicelli, President/CEO. Funicelli notes that UniLustre surface properties readily accept offset, flexo, gravure and UV inks. Lighter weights of UniLustre do not flake or crack, which makes it especially desirable to envelope, confection wrap and set up box manufacturers.
To support the development of its “cutting edge” product innovations, Unifoil utilizes “cutting edge” technology – literally. “Only converting materials of exceptional cut quality are acceptable to printers and end users like Warner Lambert, Gillette, Cadbury, Estee Lauder and Scholastic,” says Funicelli. Unifoil long ago entered a relationship with Maxson Automatic Machinery Company of Westerly, RI to ensure that quality sheeted stock was delivered. It is a relationship that has been strengthened with subsequent sheeters purchased.
Unifoil recently installed an electronic dual motor drive retrofit package to increase its speed and cutoff accuracy. The growth of the UniLustre business dictated more production capacity and a decision was made to purchase a Maxson dual rotary knife sheeter “to fulfill that need and guarantee the quality that the industry requires,” explains Funicelli. “We have a relationship of trust that goes back many years. We have a high level of confidence in Maxson equipment, personnel and their responsiveness,” he says. However, the company did research and consider several sheeter manufacturers before deciding the Maxson DFK sheeter was what it needed to accomplish its goals. Funicelli notes that once the dual rotary sheeter was installed, Unifoil “immediately saw a 25-30% increase in productivity.”
The Maxson DFK is equipped with a pivot arm shaftless roll stand of self-loading design with the capacity to lift 72” diameter rolls weighing 10,000 lbs. The roll stand has automatic tension control and emergency stop braking with a 6-inch skew adjustment. A roll of stock is positioned between the two lifting arms that pick up the roll with the aid of a 5 HP hydraulic motor. “We have decided that ordering an additional roll stand will give us the ability to make-ready a roll and, with the incorporation of an automatic splicing component, change rolls on-the-fly giving us the ability to run continuously,” reports Funicelli. At the present time, the first one or two sheets of a new roll are diverted to a reject gate. When the auto-splicing feature is engaged, the spliced sheet will be rejected.
“With so much automation on the DFK, we consider this sheeter nearly a single operator function,” says Dwight Pennell, Plant Manager. “In fact, we found the DFK sheeter just as easy to set up and operate as the stationary bed sheeter which is designed for short runs and frequent web changes.” Job parameters are easily entered on a touch-screen microprocessor controller that also makes continual accuracy calculations and logs pertinent data. A web-conditioning unit is equipped with web steering that keeps the web perfectly positioned to enter the cutting section producing a sheet with a squareness accuracy of ± 0.020 inches. Additionally, the cutting section redesign allows the operator easy access to the slitter rig to make fine adjustments.
“A clean, precisely cut sheet is what we must have to send on to the printer, and that is what we’re getting,” continues Pennell. “We cut-to-register to within tolerances of ±0.015 inches with a cut so clean that, even without the aid of dust collection equipment, we send an acceptable product directly to the printer.”
The modular slitter rig design on the sheeter provides open access for the easy fine adjustments while maintaining high level safety standards.
There’s no room for registration error on the holographic bus passes read by a scanning device Unifoil produces. “Cut perfection is critical for this product,” asserts Pennell. He adds that Unifoil has also gained cost and waste savings on this project. “The accuracy and precision cutting have reduced waste by over 2 % – a significant sum of product, and money, considering our volume,” he explains.
Unifoil is pumping through the tonnage. Just one holographic product, a party plate, required converting 600 tons last year. At any given time, the company maintains “a significant amount of tonnage of roll stock” for converting. “This allows extremely quick response and rapid turn-around for our customers,” explains Pennell. “When so much product is running through the DFK, we appreciate the design of the machine. It is ergonomically friendly. For example, some other sheeters have very wide tapes through the tape section. Because of more narrow tapes, the Maxson DFK’s tape section allows excellent visibility and we find easy access throughout.”
The continuous offload feature permits no interruption in production. The machine simply ramps down in speed and collects sheeted material in the tape section while the finished skids are offloaded from the stacker in crisp, perfect 61 inch ice blocks.
“Our reputation is established, our talents and abilities have made us partners with our customers. Our graphic designers and theirs are teamed to explore the evolution of these products as they continue to mature. New applications are being developed all the time and we’re ahead of the curve on innovation. We know what’s new, different and of benefit,” summarized Funicelli. “Unifoil has always committed to investing in machinery that ensures perfect product. The Maxson DFK has demonstrated a continuation of that principal.”
Reprinted from Paper Film and Foil Converter, June 2001
