A winding machine for web-type materials, in particular film materials, comprises a feeding device and at least one winding shaft which is capable of being driven and designed to receive a winding core for the winding of the web-type film material, wherein the winding machine is allocated a system for regulating and/or reducing an electrostatic charge of the web-type material during the winding process.

A method of operating an off-line finishing device for fiber webs, in particular an off-line slitter-winder for winding fiber webs, wherein in operating the off-line device the running speed is automatically optimized to minimize cost of web breaks. The method considers the costs associated with a web break during unwinding in addition to the cost benefit of maximizing web unwind speed so as to maximize machine utilization. The method determines an optimal web break stopping time in a web break situation and how often a web break is predicted. Automatic optimization incorporates limitations including the maximum rotation speed of the parent roll, the maximum speed of the fiber web being unwound, the maximum positive torque which can be applied to the parent roll to accelerate the parent roll to a rotation rate which produces a desired web speed, and maximum braking torque.

A web handling system is described, including a plurality of web handling controllers and a web handling process logic controller networked to form a ring network. A processor of the web handling process logic controller being configured to determine whether a fault exists within the ring network, and responsive to determining that a fault exists within the ring network, to generate and send signals throughout the ring network to switch the configuration of the ring network to at least one linear network.

Method for predicting the presence of product defects during an intermediate processing step of a thin product wound in a roll, which provides for—receiving a roll of thin product that has been assigned a unique identification code stored in a database system, this latter containing process and/or product parameters detected in the production steps of said thin product wound in said roll upstream of said intermediate processing step, associated with said unique identification code,—accessing said database system,—entering one or more of the process and/or product parameters associated with the unique identification code of said roll contained in said database system in a predictive model, which uses a correlation, created by means of machine learning logics, from historicized values related to the process and/or product parameters output from said intermediate processing step and historicized values related to process and/or product parameters of the same rolls detected in the production steps of said rolls upstream of said intermediate processing step, in order to predict product parameters output from said intermediate processing step,—comparing said aforesaid product parameters with respective predefined limit values,—generating predictive diagnosis information of thin product defects based on the result of said comparison.

A slitting machine (500) includes a laminated film unwinding apparatus (540), a release liner recovery apparatus (550), a cutting apparatus (530), and a plurality of polymer substrate strip rewinding apparatuses (510, 520). The laminated film unwinding apparatus (540) is operable to unwind a roll of laminated film (542) comprising at least a polymer substrate (100) and a release liner (150). The release liner recovery apparatus (550) is operable to wind the release liner (150) that is released from the polymer substrate (100). The cutting apparatus (530) is operable to cut at least the polymer substrate (100) along a machine direction to divide the polymer substrate into strips. The plurality of polymer substrate strip rewinding apparatuses (510, 520) are operable to wind one or more strips of the polymer substrate (100) onto one or more rolls (512, 522). The slitting machine (500) is operable to carry out a method for forming rolls (512, 522) of coated films (100).

A mult threader assembly has a mult threader frame, a movable carriage that is slidably disposed on the frame, a fixed clamping member, a separator shaft mounted on the movable carriage, and a movable clamping member mounted on the movable carriage.

A method of producing a film is provided. The method involves a winding step including a point-of-interest detecting step including detecting a point-of-interest on the film, a number-of-turns counting step including counting the number of turns of the film wound around a winding core, and a number-of-turns storing step including storing, in association with the number of turns of the film wound around the winding core, a position of the point-of-interest in a direction of transfer of the film. The method eliminates the need for a step of printing on a film for the purpose of locating a point-of-interest on the film.

A corrugated sheet processing apparatus is disclosed, comprising feed and guide rollers for selecting, moving and supporting sheets or webs to a corrugator for forming a corrugated sheet; and a control system for controlling the sheet processing equipment or a cutter; the sheet processing apparatus further comprising a visual inspection unit for reading printed information markers on at least one printed sheet or web as the printed sheet or web pass through the corrugated sheet processing apparatus, or corrugator; and wherein the control system further has a data look-up table whereby the apparatus can identify what products will be produced downstream of the visual inspection unit, and the required settings for the sheet processing equipment or corrugator for those products.

A web handling system is described, including a plurality of web handling controllers and a web handling process logic controller networked to form a ring network. A processor of the web handling process logic controller being configured to determine whether a fault exists within the ring network, and responsive to determining that a fault exists within the ring network, to generate and send signals throughout the ring network to switch the configuration of the ring network to at least one linear network.

Thick thermoset prepreg sheets and slit tapes and methods and apparatus for the production thereof.