Lights, Camera, Action!

Brian Ivens, manager of sales and marketing for Arpeco, states that, “Most finishing machines provide several functions [like inspection, slitting, counting, and rewinding] at the same time to maximize throughput and minimize the number of passes that the product must go through.” According to Ivens, when slitting and rewinding, it is undesirable to reverse the web direction because of potential slitting inaccuracies, so most machines that perform these functions are unidirectional. “On a typical unidirecitonal machine, traveling at speeds of up to 1,000 fpm, when an error is detected the machine slows down and forward-places the fault to a position suited for operator correction,” he says. However, after the operator makes the necessary corrections, the web is not reinspected, leaving potential errors, which may have been missed by the operator, on the finished roll and shipped to the customer. “For some products, this is not a problem,” Ivens adds.” But for pharmaceutical or the security or high value-added products, these errors are unacceptable.”