A good first step – where possible – is to have your scheduling department arrange sheeter orders so you don’t have to reposition or introduce additional slitters each time for each production run.
Most set up time associated with slitting is positioning the bottom rings. Here are some time saving tips:
- If there are popular widths that are run on the sheeter, scribe those positions onto the bottom slitter shaft to permit quick location of the bottom slitter rings.
- If sheet widths are fairly few, you may choose to have multiple bottom rings already positioned on the slitter shaft to avoid moving them about.
- If production runs are short and size changes frequent, consider outfitting the bottom slitter assembly with an air bladder shaft and digital read out system to allow fast, accurate placement of slitters.
- In some installations the ability to preset the slitters off line in a cartridge assembly to allow rapid change over might be be considered.
- Ultimately, a slitting assembly can be fully programmed to automatically set up slitter positions – both upper and lower.
As for the top shear slitters; use slitter blades with pneumatically loaded blade holders. Air loaded slitters are quicker, easier and more forgiving in set up than their older mechanical type cousins.
