Following recent conversations with the upgrade department of Atlas Converting Equipment Ltd, URC Film Division decided to upgrade their two Atlas CW960AP slitter rewinders. The two original Atlas machines were supplied in 1996 and 2002 and have been running efficiently ever since. However, due to improvements delivered by the upgraded film production plant the two slitter rewinders were running at maximum capacity to keep up with the increased film production, so a decision was taken to upgrade both the machines.
With the replacement of the currently obsolete original AC drives, upgrading the winding method and adding anti-static bars the machines are now capable of operating at a higher speed and delivering higher quality final packages. Apart from the performance upgrades, safety fences to the latest European standards were installed increasing the safety for the operators.
Whilst the machines were being upgraded, the maintenance teams at URC film division also fully serviced the machines whilst working alongside the Atlas technicians, improving their knowledge and experience of the machines.
When the machines were re-commissioned, URC film division took out service contracts with Atlas Converting Equipment Ltd for both machines. The service contracts will ensure that the machines are serviced at the appropriate intervals and deliver higher productivity due to reduced un-scheduled downtime. Both machines have also been fitted with the Atlas Gateway remote access support which allows Atlas customer service engineers to interrogate the operating systems via remote access allowing for faster fault diagnostics and reduced downtime.
After completion of the upgrades and re-commission of the two slitter rewinders, Ramon C. Augustines, general manager for URC Film Division commented, “We are exceptionally pleased with the upgrades performed by the Atlas team, the upgraded machines have met all of our expectations, we may look for further performance upgrades in the future”.
Kevin Murphy, Upgrades – sales manager for Atlas Converting Equipment said, “These two machines had been in service for a good length of time and in that time the technology has moved forward, here we have a clear example of how our customers can benefit from upgrading their older machines at a lower cost than replacing them completely and still achieve the required performance”.
Very useful guide on upgrading slitter rewinders.