Overview of Tape Cutting Machines

As the final procedure of tape production, the adhesive tape cutting machines can cut coating tape rolls based on a certain size, to meet the different width requirements for finished tape. The poor quality of tape slitting machines will directly affect the quality of tapes, which are prone to causing appearance defects such as bubbles and uneven edges during converting process, the high rate of rejects brings a heavy burden to tape manufacturer. The tape cutters produced by LEAP Machinery possess high cutting accuracy and stable tension control, widely used for the converting various of adhesive materials including BOPP tapes, PET tapes, PVC tapes, medical tapes, cloth tapes, foam tapes, kraft paper tapes, masking tape, double-sided tape and others.

Development of tape cutting machines

In the early days, domestic tape enterprises threw large amount of resources in the research and development of front-end film making and coating fields. The purchase of tape cutters mainly relied on import from abroad, well-known brands include kampf from Germany, Fuji from Japan, Atlas from Britain, etc. However, domestic small and medium-sized slitter machine factories remained imitation of foreign equipment, lack of basic understanding on physical properties of different adhesive materials, there is also a huge gap in mechanical accuracy and system control. Therefore, the market development of tape coverting machines is relatively slow. Many tape suppliers still use outdated equipment from a dozen years, and lead to a series of problems such as high material waste, frequent shutdowns, long production period, the products are short of competition due to low automation level and production efficiency, especially under the dual influence of rising labor costs and raw materials.

With the rapid development of flexible packaging industry, especially it has been a huge and urgent market demand for packaging tapes such as BOPP tapes. On the other hand, benefited from years of accumulation, many slitter rewinder manufacturers have owned mature production systems and processes. They have gradually embark on the road of independent innovation after digestion and absorption of foreign advanced tape cutting technology, instead of simple copy without change. Make significant progress in both cutting width and cutting speed, from simple manual/automatic roll cutting machines to semi-automatic/automatic slitting rewinding machines which are suitable for large-scale production. Depending on low prices, excellent performance and good after-sales service, domestic tape converting equipment is gradually replacing imported equipment and continuously expanding market share. At the same time, it also reduces the threshold for small and medium-sized tape factories to upgrade their cutting systems.

Types of tape slitting machines

Generally, it can be divided into roll cutting machine and slitter rewinder machine based on the different cutting methods. The roll cutting machine is also known as log cutter or Lathe slitter, a mother tape roll is fixed on a rotating shaft, which is driven by a motor to promote roll to rotate. A high precision alloy round knife is used to cut on one side. Before slitting, the width of finished tape is determined by adjusting lateral position of blades, and equipped with a silicone solution cooling system which can effectively prevent blade from sticking. For materials with different sizes, it can be also designed as a biaxial or multi axial structure to improve cutting efficiency. The shaftless log cutting machine is appropriate for adhesive rolls with larger weight and diameter, to avoid deformation caused by the gravity of roll material. The automatic tape cutting machine automatically feeds and cuts, and can set cutting width, times, angle and other parameters through human machine interface. The cutting positioning system uses servo control motor for precise positioning, and the computer control more than ten modes for automatic conversion of cutting tasks, greatly improve processing efficiency.

The common slitting winding machines include two types: semi-automatic and fully automatic. The semi-automatic tape slitter machine must be used together with core cutting and loading machine. The paper core is fixed on the air shaft through the paper core loading machine. The first operation requires manual knife arrangement according to specific slitting width. During running, the unwinding shaft, transmission shaft and winding shaft begin to rotate. After slitting the tape strips are wrapped around the paper core on winding shaft, and the waste edges at both ends are collected on independent shafts. At the end of winding, manually attach label and cut off the tape horizontally. The fully automatic tape converting machine developed by LEAP Machinery adopts a robot arm to automatically handle winding shaft, integrated paper core loader make loading and unloading process automatically, auto label tabbing and auto cut off when the winding length reaches the preset value, and enters the next slitting round through auto shaft transfer system. The staff don’t need to do anything except replacing the mother roll and remove the waste, the staff do not need any operation except for replacing the master roll and handling waste edges, truly realize “easy-to-use production”.

Applications of tape converting machines

1) Noise issues. The tape master roll with strong viscosity will produce tearing sound during unwinding process, which can affect the hearing health of workers who work for a long time. Wearing earplugs is one solution, and more and more slitter rewinders are equipped with noise eliminating cover at unwinding station to effectively isolate most of noise.

2) Cutting tools wear. In previous coating process, the adhesive layer with a certain thickness will apply resistance force on circular blade, and easy to wear during high-speed slitting conditions, result in burrs on the end face of tape rolls. Tape cutter suppliers commonly mount a nozzle above knife to spray cooling fluid to ensure smooth cutting, and an proper amount of anti-rust oil can be also added to protect blade from erosion. In addition, timely tool changing and grinding is also important for good slitting results.

3) Poor tension control. Stable tension is the most important factor in tape coverting process. If the tension is too low, uneven end faces or bubbles may appear. If the tension is too high, it will cause excessive stress in rolls and lead to deformation or even break. The variation of the winding diameter is one of the reasons for tension fluctuation. Generally, constant tension control is reasonable on uwinding station, and taper tension control as the winding diameter increases is ideal for winding station. The tape slitter manufacturers will build an algorithm model for users to adjust datas according to their needs, customers should comprehensively consider tape materials with different property to find the optimal cutting parameters in practice.