Waste Not, Wobble Not

Tension controls evolve as the industry does. Higher speeds and larger rolls are the norm today. Many converters want to run larger diameter rolls on existing equipment to make the machine more efficient (fewer roll changes and splices). “Improvements in efficiency can be offset by the waste that is created with a machine that doesn’t have the range of tension controllability necessary to control the unwind from full roll to core due to large roll build ratios,” says Chris Harper, district manager for Maxcess. “Converters may find that they are throwing away usable material before the end of a run because a single gain value type of controller that worked at full roll becomes unstable as the run gets closer to the core. Multiple gain points will fix this issue.”