Web Industries, a leading provider of flexible material converting and end-product manufacturing services, will launch a new large format spooling (LFS) resource to benefit manufacturers of diapers, feminine pads, medical facemasks, adult incontinence and related health and hygiene products looking to achieve greater yield from their nonwoven and hygienic materials.

The LFS, currently under construction at Web Industries’ Fort Wayne, IN, plant, will occupy roughly 10,000 sq. ft. of floor space. Custom designed by Web Industries to process and quickly turnaround large-volume wide-web orders, the proprietary design incorporates state-of-the-art slitting technology, improved individual web control and unique material handling capabilities for spools of large width and OD that maximise customers’ run time.

The large-scale spooler unwinds, slits to customer specifications and then precisely rewinds materials onto cores for shipment to consumer goods manufacturers, where the material is fabricated into finished parts or goods, the manufacturer explains.

Expanding marketplace

“Large format spooling is gaining popularity among major manufacturers of diapers and other consumer products for the yield and equipment uptime benefits it can deliver,” said Tom Lucas, Web Industries’ project manager overseeing the spooler’s construction. “The marketplace is expanding and there’s more demand for LFS. With our new spooler, we are creating more capacity to match the demand. One of our advantages is that we can spool material on a very large scale. We can unwind, slit and wind a lot of spools very quickly.”

Lucas noted that hygiene product manufacturers typically work with Web Industries’ engineers to select the best material, based on price and specifications, such as tensile strength, absorption, basis weight, softness and processability, to find the optimum solution. “Selecting the right material is a key consideration for our manufacturer customers,” he said. “There is a lot to choose from, and we provide experienced assistance in the materials selection process. We are flexible in material source and manage the supply chain for our customer.”

“We continue to see strong demand for new hygiene products in North America. In this environment, Web’s large format spools will help increase our customers’ line efficiencies and lower their total cost. Equally important, our investment in additional capacity will allow us to meet their growing market needs and provide exceptional quality with a wide flexibility in materials,” commented Web Industries’ VP Sales Jason Surman.

 Large format versus smaller format

With smaller format spooling, product manufacturers load a smaller quantity of slit material into their production equipment, and then splice and affix incoming rolls as the material plays out.  Compared with LFS, this process wastes material before and after the splice, and can require machinery downtime to complete the transfer, the company reports.

“A diaper manufacturer might lose 20 diapers during a splice,” said Lucas. “Our new LFS, with its precision slitting and rewinding, provides splices that are useable. This facilitates longer runs between roll changes and, therefore, longer production runs. We can achieve lengths of materials in hundreds of thousands of feet.”

Web Industries’ new LFS has advanced spooler technology with sophisticated programming that manages a spool’s traversing motion as material is laid onto it. According to the company, programming parameters can be very specific to enable materials to pay out at certain speeds and be processed in ways that will not crush or twist a web. The system is said to be able to process materials having very light tensions in a wide range of slit widths on high-speed diaper and consumer product manufacturing lines.

www.webindustries.com