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Producer of Plastic Netting Upgrades Unwind Stands with Simple Retrofit System

Recently a producer of plastic netting for the construction and packaging industry approached Double E regarding their unwind system. The customer uses unwind stations to feed film into their knitting machines. These unwind stations were found to be very inefficient due to the time it took to load and unload the rolls. The system also had tension control problems causing the web to break unexpectedly. This resulted in up to four to five hours of down time to re-configure the knitting machine. The roll stand had a manual braking system but was not setup to detect a signal from the machine which made it difficult to make adjustments to the tension while the web was running. Safety was also a growing concern since the shaft laid in shallow nylon groove rather than being held securely to the stand.

For this application, Double E engineered a simple and efficient system that would easily bolt onto custom stands built by the customer. This system consisted of a DG-2000 aluminum bladder shaft, a pneumatic brake, and two pedestal mounted safety chucks with side-lay adjustment. The lightweight aluminum shaft allowed the customer to quickly and easily change out rolls while the safety chucks held those rolls in place. The pneumatic brake worked seamlessly in regulating tension by taking a signal from the machine and automatically applying just the right amount of resistance to keep the web at a constant speed.

Double E provided this basic system to four of the customers knitting machines and the customer has since expressed satisfaction with the performance of the new unwind sections. Productivity has increased due to the more efficient roll changes and profit loss has decreased due the elimination of web breaks. Safety is no longer a concern since the new side-lay safety chucks hold the shafts securely in place.