After such great success with its first CW800 duplex center-surface slitter/rewinder from Elite Cameron/EC Designs (www.elitecameron.com), it was difficult for Batavia, IL-based Strata-Tac to find a new slitter/rewinder that compared to the level of technology and service its staff was accustomed to using.

“We were very reluctant to accept downgrades to the current machine,” says general manager Andy Schwartzbauer. “Plus, we had a higher degree of confidence (in Elite Cameron) because they've done it before.”

They've done it multiple times, in fact. Strata-Tac, a manufacturer of specialty pressure-sensitive products for the business-forms industry—providing proprietary ID cards and integrated labels—also has a core cutter, Aztec rewinder and double-roll winder from EC Designs. “We're strong on the EC Designs because of their slitter's auto knife settings and the machine's unique way of controlling tension,” Schwartzbauer explains.

Strata-Tac has been experiencing growth averaging 10 percent annually due to the expanding-integrated products market. Schwartzbauer expects the business-forms industry to continue to grow and plans on growing along with it. “We're pretty focused on biz forms with integrated labels being our niche,” he says. Because of that continued growth, the company needed another slitter/rewinder to increase its production capacity. Although having worked previously with EC Designs, Schwartzbauer decided to shop around and see the machinery this side of the Pond had to offer—Strata-Tac initially worked with EC Designs when it had its facilities in the UK. However, after much searching, it couldn't find a machine that worked well with its materials. Along with the label stocks, Strata-Tac also converts magnetic film.

“We just had a bad test (at another supplier's plant), and they couldn't figure out (what was wrong),” Schwartzbauer says.

So, once again, Strata-Tac turned to EC Designs for its slitting and winding needs. It installed the second CW800 last May. Along with training provided for the second machine, EC Designs re-trained Strata-Tac operators and added upgrades to the first CW800.

“We were having difficulty using the differential-winding capabilities of the first machine because we were using it as a locked-core shaft to work with the magnetic film,” Schwartzbauer says. “EC (when it installed the second machine) installed two new differential rewind shafts and showed us how to use it with the magnetic film.”

Today they can slit the magnetic film to six rolls, running from 300 to 400 fpm, and the substrates wind “nice and straight.” The second CW800 also has differential-rewinding capabilities with EC differential-rewind shafts and Double E airshafts (www.doubleeusa.com). The differential shafts use ceramic balls to apply pressure to the core, which allows Strata-Tac to use larger-diameter and heavier rolls. The machine can handle an unwind weight of 4,000 lbs and a rewind weight of a 1,000-lb full-width differential. It can take on web widths from 4 to 62 in., unwind cores of 3 and 6 in., a maximum rewind diameter of 32 in. and rewind core diameter of 3 in. “It's much sturdier, and we found that certain other materials we work with wind better on the differential shafts,” Schwartzbauer adds.

The differential-winding technology also contributes to tension control, which was another major factor in choosing the CW800. The machine is supplied with the latest SSD/Parker distributed control system, which incorporates the 890 AC-vector drive technology for high-speed runs. The Dover Flexo Electronics (www.dfe.com) load cells communicate with the drive to maintain tension control throughout the winding cycle.

Another feature Strata-Tac could not do without was EC Designs' automatic knife-setting system, which uses Tidland Series 1 Performance knifeholders (www.tidland.com). The operator can program the slit sizes or recall settings from the storage recipe to set any slit pattern down to 1-in. cuts. “The auto-knife set-up was a huge factor in our choice to go with the CW800. We run lots of different set-ups, which we run for an hour or two and then change to a different one,” Schwartzbauer explains. “(Auto knifesetting) has made us more efficient with our work.”

The male and female knives are moved into position automatically without operator intervention. The web can remain in place throughout the sequence as there are independent actuators for the male and female axis. The system automatically parks the unused holders and female knives between the active ones, eliminating the need to remove unnecessary blades.

But, if the operator does need to intervene, the knife settings are accessible, and the operator can make changes right away. Other features include automatic offset after grinding and a blade-cleaning system to eliminate adhesive build-up during production. When coupled with the laser core-positioning system, the automatic knifesetter also has helped reduce waste. The laser core-positioning system indicates the position for the rewind cores to reduce setup time, thus minimizing waste on initial startup.

“There's no guess work in setup,” Schwartzbauer says. “When it's all put together it saves time and waste.”

A typical job change can be done in less than 3 minutes with one operator, which includes slit change, cut cores, roll change and the resetting of machine parameters.

Additionally, the machine features layon rolls with gap winding and fully programmable layon-roll pressure, which automatically adjusts relative to speed and diameter with the option to run in minimum gap mode.

“We run (the CW800s) a single shift and have doubled production,” Schwartzbauer says. “We feel better positioned now going into the fourth quarter, our busiest season.”