Overview of Pre-coated Film Slitting Machine

Pre-coated film is a type of polymer composite material, which is manufactured by bonding the film substrate with hot melt adhesive or resin adhesives. Under a certain temperature and pressure, it can be combined with printed paper to form paper-plastic product. The lamination process has experienced the early instant coating technology with heavy pollution and water-based instant coating technology with light pollution, and has gradually been replaced by pre-coating lamination technology with environmental protection and energy saving. The pre-coated film slitting machine is a specially designed cutting equipment with low tension and high precision, broadly used as corollary equipment in various widths of composite membrane production lines.

Types of pre-coated film

There are a wide variety of pre-coating films including matte/glossy pre-coated films, laser anti-false pre-coated films, metalized pre-coated films, embossing laminating films, aluminum pre-coating films, anti-scratch soft touch laminating film, digital pre-coated films, etc. According to the different types of membrane substrates, it can be mainly divided into BOPP pre-coating film, BOPET pre-coating film and BOPA pre-coating film. Among them, BOPP polypropylene film is most widely used as a laminating material for various books, magazines, food, drugs and daily packaging. BOPET polyester film has good brightness and hardness, some thicker membranes have gradually become the mainstream in commercial printing market, such as producing kinds of advertising products and cards. BOPA nylon film has good odor barrier performance, good heat resistance and moisture absorption performance, also have properties of high strength, toughness and puncture resistance, become an important choice for modern and high-grade laminating membrane materials.

Composition of pre-coating film cutting machine

The unwinding mechanism is generally composed of a pair of unwinding arms driven by horizontally movable cylinders, and conical unwinding chucks are used to fix the paper core in mother roll. At the unwind end, use magnetic powder brake realize constant tension control , won’t be affected by changes in speed and unwinding diameter. The edge sensor tracks the edge of web material, and the driver swings laterally within a certain range to guide the film material, avoid quality issues caused by membrane layer deviation or error on splicing materials. The traction mechanism can change the movement direction of laminating film, play a transitional role between winding and unwinding through guide rollers, can be also equipped with a spreader roller as needed to ensure that the pre-coating film enters into next cutting process without wrinkles. The slitting mechanism requires proper razor blades or circular knives according to specific thickness and characteristics of membrane. During the slitting process, stable tension and smooth running without drift is essential. Maintain moderate cutting speed, improve efficiency as possible while ensuring cutting quality. The winding unit adopts an active winding method, generally consists of two air shafts, two pressure rollers, and a servo motor. The winding tension is calculated through PLC to achieve taper control, and the pressure applied by contact roller can be automatically adjusted along with the change in diameter of pre-coated film roll. Finally, transfer the finished rolls to trolley through unloading rack, and don’t foget to place a soft cushion on trolley to avoid damage to the surface of pre-coated film.

Development of laminating film slitting rewinding machines

Composite type pre-coating films came into Chinese market in the 21st century. With the increasing demand for digital printing and fancy packaging, the production scale of pre-coated films has rapidly expanded, and put forward the higher request for the specialization and automation level of slitter rewinder machines. In the early days, the production lines of biaxially stretched films in China mainly relied on import equipments, and commonly equipped with large gantry cutting machines for first-time slitting to produce film substrate products with large width. However, domestic composite film slitter rewinders have low efficiency and poor accuracy, which can be only provided to small private packaging enterprises for small specifications cutting applications. Comparing to production lines, the proportion of investment in film post-processing equipment is relatively small, and the life cycle of slitting equipment is shorter. Therefore, the huge demand in the high-end market drives Chinese cutting machine manufacturers to significantly improve their equipment level through continuous technological upgrades. For example, LEAP Machinery has been able to produce individual station pre-coated film slitting rewinding machines with high speed, high precision and large widths. In addition, compared to foreign manufacturers, Chinese laminating film cutting machines not only have lower investment and maintenance costs, but also have obvious advantages in after-sales service, spare parts supply and techonolgy communication, get more and more attractions from newly established end pre-coating factories in China.