2011 AIMCAL MARCH MANAGEMENT MEETING Speakers

Te c H n i c a l Q&a
AIMCAL Blogs
Website services from AIMCAL offer expert assistance to members and nonmembers facing a converting problem.
The new home for the AIMCAL
Blogs is the Converting Quarterly
Website, www.convertingquarterly.
com. However, access also is available
from the AIMCAL Website,
www.aimcal.org, the CEMA Website,
www.cema-converting.org/ and the
Converting Portal, www.convertingportal.com.
The popular Converting
Curmudgeon Blog written by Mark
Spaulding, associate publisher
and editor-in-chief of Converting
Quarterly, joins the Vacuum Web
Coating Blog, the Web Coating Blog,
the Web Handling and Converting
Blog, the Substrate Secrets Blog, and
the Drives for Web Handling Blog.
A sampling of recent questions and
answers fielded by the blogmasters
follows.
From the
Drives for Web
Handling Blog
Question:
Which is the best
drive brand?
Answer: This is
really a question
with no answer.
If the product is
still on the market,
there are satisfied
customers.
The subjective answer will need
to be based on price, performance,
delivery, and service. We know a lot
of the brand names (in alphabetical
order): ABB, Danfoss, GE, Hitachi,
Mitsubishi, Parker, Rockwell (Allen-
Bradley), Siemens, Telemecanique,
Toshiba, TMEIC, WEG. I am sure
there are many others. I have worked
with most of those listed above. The
surprising thing is that all of these
vendors have drives suitable for web
handling, including vector, sensorless
vector, and servo AC VSD offerings.
It is predicable that the larger
companies charge more for their
product. In exchange, they may offer
more in the way of service and support
and product range (small to
high power, communications options,
training, etc.). Large customers are
comfortable purchasing from large
suppliers. How much post sales assistance
is provided in purchasing and
configuring your drive?
Performance for a drive system
may mean different things. For a continuous
process, the most important
item is high availability (long mean
time between failure). For a roll-to-roll
line, cost and excellent tension control
will be most important.
Fast delivery is important for all
suppliers.
Service means people. Industry
experts cost $2,000-$3,000 per day
(more than the cost of a small drive).
Are you happy with your sales and
service? If you are, continue purchasing
the drives you are using. If not,
get a good reference in your region
before switching suppliers.
Clarence Klassen, Blogmaster
www.convertingquarterly.com/
blogs/drives-for-web-handling
From the
Substrates
Secrets Blog
Question: I just
received a complaint
about our
film. The customer
said our film creates
powder when
they use it. We
would like to make
sure the powder is
coming from our
film. How should we go about obtaining
a sample?
Answer: What now becomes
important is getting a sample that is
representative of the problem and
with as little secondary contamination
as possible. In a perfect world, you
would collect the sample yourself or
guide the customer in collecting it.
The best way is to supply a
cleaned rag in a clean, contaminantfree
pouch, which the customer can
use to collect and return the sample.
In this case, I would take a cotton rag
with a fine weave and wash it in distilled
water, followed by alcohol and
then acetone (to dry the water). When
dry, wash the rag with hexane and
allow it to dry completely. The rag
can be wrapped in a washed piece
of aluminum foil (all foil has surface
oils on it) and placed in a plastic bag
until use.
The customer should then wipe
the rag on the surface to collect the
powder or chemical sample, or simply
scrape the deposit onto a clean
aluminum-foil surface, wrap it up and
return it for analysis.
The use of a cleaned rag helps
eliminate background contamination
from the rag itself. If a clean rag is not
used, then the analysis should proceed
using a piece of the rag (where
no sample was taken with it) as a
blank. If the sample was collected
onto foil or into a polybag, then they
should be treated to the same analysis
as the sample to allow subtraction
of any contamination on the foil or
polybag.
A blank analysis uses all parts
of the sample collection system
(rag, foil, bag, etc.) and gives it the
same sample workup as the samplecontaining
surfaces. Then, when the
analysis is done, all the things found
on the blank are not necessarily due
to the film but to background, unless
the concentration is much higher.
Then it might be part of the problem.
Blank samples are sometimes the
most important part of the analysis.
One way to maintain a good blank is
to keep a portion of the rag you send
to submit with the sample. Otherwise,
you will have to search for an uncontaminated
portion of their rag to use
as the blank.
Dr. Eldridge Mount
www.convertingquarterly.com/
blogs/substrate-secrets
28 Holiday 2010 www.aimcal.org