Often the manufacturing of small and inconspicuous things is the complex part. When pouring a cup of tea, who wonders how the ultra-thin filter paper turns into a tea bag? When smoking a cigarette, who thinks about how the thin cigarette paper gets its shape? These and all other types of paper, board and film have one thing in common: At the very beginning of their processing, they are wound onto huge mother rolls. They only reach their final size after being processed in multiple steps on slitting and winding machines. And because every paper, every board and every film have unique material requirements when it comes to slitting and winding, GOEBEL IMS has the right machine in its portfolio for every need. The company is based in Darmstadt, Italy and US, amongst other branch offices worldwide, and looks back on more than 165 years of history. Group Marketing Manager Kerstin Stumpf-Trautmann states: “Our machine portfolio serves five market segments: Aluminium foils and films, aseptic packaging materials, paper and board as well as cigarette papers. In all these markets, the expectations placed on our slitter rewinders in terms of quality, processing and precision are extremely high. We have been fulfilling this demand for decades and with our technical solutions in slitting and winding we have developed into a renowned supplier and market leader for standard and special machines”.

After 30 years still like new
But GOEBEL IMS also focuses on the maintenance and modernization of more than 11,000 slitter rewinders delivered worldwide. Therefore, when a retrofit was required for two MONOSLIT slitter rewinders after 30 years in production, the experts carefully analyzed the complete system. Harald Loos, Head of Electrical Design at GOEBEL IMS: “The machines are used to process plastic films for packaging industries. One machine produced in Canada, the other in the USA. In order to meet future requirements, the lines had to be modernized. This also included in some parts the cabling. Particularly in the area of cables and wires, a lot has happened in recent decades, and we wanted to incorporate these new developments into the retrofit.”

High standard
When cutting paper and film, the web material is first unwound from a mother roll of up to twelve meters wide on the slitter rewinder and cut lengthwise into narrower strips. These webs are fed to so-called winding stations, where they are rewound in the new width. One winding station can have two winding arms, of which up to 48 can be mounted on the traverse of the slitter rewinder. The winding arms can be moved two-dimensionally: to the left and to the right to set the desired width of the web, and in a swivel movement to the front. Sensors and actuators such as command devices, AC servo motors, positioning drives and valves are installed in each winding arm to perform the winding and movement processes. The special cable installed there must therefore contain not only power, encoder and servo cables for driving the motor, but also several data cables. During operation, the cable is carried along uncontrolled and is exposed to very high mechanical loads. Claus Müller-Bohrmann, Area Sales Manager at HELUKABEL, reports: “Developing the special cable, several challenges had to be mastered. We wanted to introduce additional data cables without significantly increasing the cable diameter. But it was even more important to balance tension and pressure.”

The trick at the bend
“With the new wiring, the machines are ready for the next 30 years.”
Harald Loos, Head of Electrical Design at GOEBEL IMS

“To fasten the cable to the winding arms, we designed a special fastening clip, to which we only fixed the outer sheath of the cable. The inner braiding ensures that the mechanical tension acts purely on the sheath.” In order to prevent the cores from buckling in the cable, the HELUKABEL experts also used tensile and compression-resistant special fillers during stranding.

In the meantime, the two redesigned MONOSLIT slitter rewinders are back at the customer’s site and Harald Loos is optimistic: “With the new cabling, the machines are ready for the next 30 years”.