Modern Plastics Worldwide - July/August 2009 - dae uptlax

PROCESSING
TECHNOLOGY
production typically represent 80% of
total cost, processors of course always
are on the outlook for other ways to
save, and cores represent one of the latest
areas of consideration. Finnemore
says in an average in-line handwrap
production of four 17-μm film reels of
300 m/reel, processors generally use a
paper core with a wall thickness of 5
mm. This represents €0.15 or 23.3% of
the total conversion cost. Machine film
conversion costs of four reels of 23-μm
film running 1500m, and assuming a
core with wall thickness of 11 mm, will
represent an average core cost of €0.42.
But the question remains whether
cast-film extrusion operations will accept
new solutions such as handwrap cores
of only 1-2 mm in wall thickness, and
machine film with core wall thickness of
only 5 mm or even coreless, Finnemore
says. “Reduction in core weight or elimination
will ultimately reduce the overall
cost/kg of film transportation. Walmart
CEO Lee Scott reported back in 2007
that the company was pressing vendors
to go more green, and both handwrap
and machine wrap were target areas.”
Suppliers [who deliver to Walmart] are
being asked to cut their packaging by
5% by 2013.
During this year’s Plast ’09 show in
Milan, Gabriele Caccia, managing
director of Syncro, introduced the
company’s latest co-development for
coreless stretch wrap winding, Easycoreless,
pictured here at the stand.
PROCESSING TRENDS
Finnemore says generally 8360 reels
of hand wrap (5-mm wall cores at 300g)
fit into an average truck. Using 2-inch
cores with a 2-mm wall thickness
at 115g, the core
weight savings represents
1546 kg per
22 tonnes of film,
a potential reduction
of 7%. Without
cores, an additional
250,800m of film could fit
in each truck representing a
€0.005/kg reduction in film
transport costs.
With machine wrap, by using 3-inch
cores with a 5-mm wall thickness
at 450g compared to 11mm wall
cores at 1.1 kg, the core weight
savings is 858 kg/23 tonnes’ film
load, where 1320 reels fit into a truck.
This represents a 3.67% reduction of
transportation weight. The thinner cores
would allow 132,000m more film per
truck, for a transport cost savings of
€0.003/kg.
Finnemore sees thin cores being an
intermediary step and the ultimate goal is
to produce reels of stretch wrap without
the need for any cores. His company,
along with competitors Colines (Nibbia,
Italy), Dolci Extrusion (Milan, Italy), and
SML (Lenzing, Austria) are all working
together with Syncro (Busto Arsizio,
Italy) to develop coreless
winding that could
be used on existing and
new winding equipment.
Gabriele Caccia, managing
director of Syncro,
says the past two years
of R&D has produced
its latest development,
the patented Easycoreless
technology introduced
at the Plast 09 show in
Milan, which has already been tested for
what soon will be offered by the partners
on new equipment and retrofitting on
installed machines.
The proprietary rotating shafts have up
to 250 expanding and contracting parts
to wind, then deliver a wound film roll
from the shaft; they are able to convert to
winding with thin-walled cores or regular
Canadian machine maker Cooper
Machine & Tool offers this turret winder
for tear-off bags.
thickness cores as well, Caccia says.
Development proceeds on the other side
of the Atlantic as well, and at last month’s
NPE, Canada-based Cooper Machine &
Tool (Concord, ON) was talking about
its turret coreless winder. The winder
is said to be fully automatic and winds
coreless rolls of perforated tear-off bags
Finnemore says in an average in-line
handwrap production of four 17-μm
fi lm reels of 300 m/reel, processors
generally use a paper core with a
wall thickness of 5 mm. This represents
€0.15 or 23.3% of the total
conversion cost.
at up to 20 cycles/minute, claimed to
double traditional coreless winder speeds.
Operators can adjust the winding width
individually on both sides and on the
fly. Also, NO.EL Industrial Automation
(San Pietro Mosezzo, Italy), as reported
in our August 2008 issue (p. 41), will
import its coreless rewinding equipment
to North America.
16 JULY/AUGUST 2009 • MODERN PLASTICS WORLDWIDE mpw.plasticstoday.com