Roll slitting
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (May 2008) |
 |
This article is orphaned as few or no other articles link to it. Please help introduce links in articles on related topics. (April 2008) |
|
|
This page has few or no links to other articles. (Tagged since April 2008). You can improve this article by adding links to related material, within the existing text. For some link suggestions, you can try Can We Link It tool. (You can help!) |
Roll slitting is a machining operation that allows someone to cut a large roll of material into narrower rolls, for example: adhesive tape. The tape would be in a large roll, about four feet long and twelve inches in diameter. The roll is loaded on to the slitting machine by the use of a fork lift or hoist.
(http://collinscraftfiberglass.com/)
As the material is fed through the slitting machine the circular blades cut the material into narrow strips. Tubes on the exit side of the machine rewind the cut material.
“The razor cut process of slitting uses single blades. The material is pulled through the precision cutting machine, making cuts. The web path is kept short to avoid any contaminants, scratching, or wrinkles that can be introduced to the web when travelling over numerous idler rollers.” (http://www.electratarp.com/slitting_machine.php) The cuting blades can be set to a desired width. Some machines have many blades to increase the options of cutting widths, others have just a single blade and can be set to a desired location. Blades are either a circular style or a straight style.
There are many different types of materials that can be processed in this manor. Some examples are: adhesive tape, foam, rubber, paper products – such as napkins, toilet paper, paper towels, etc., foil, plastics – such as tarps, cling wrap, etc., glass cloth, sheet metal, film, and many more. The process is used because of its low cost and high precision of mass quantities. Some machines have a program that monitors the blades and sharpens the blades often to maintain the quality and precision of the cut. The machine can run between 200-300 m / min depending on the roll size and thickness of the material. The average maximum roll width is 72 inches and length of 30 inches, some are equipped to accommodated larger rolls some can only do smaller rolls.
There is a paten on this process: “Document Type and Number: United States Patent 3933063 Link to this page: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3933063.html Abstract: A multiple shaft, turret roll-slitting machine having a slitting knife mounted for movement along a path parallel to the axis of a roll to be slit and for radial movement into the roll at selected axial locations. The machine has at least two shafts upon which rolls of material are to be mounted and those shafts are movable from a cutting station to a loading and unloading station and are mounted on a turret to achieve such movement. When a first shaft is in the cutting station, it is oriented relevant to the slitting knife such that it can be slit into narrow width tape or ribbons by the slitter. At the same time, a second shaft is located in the loading and unloading station such that a previously slit roll can be removed and a new roll can be loaded into the shaft while the roll on the first shaft is being cut. The turret is then indexed reversing the positions of the first and second shafts.” (http://www.freepatentsonline.com/3933063.html) Roll slitting is sometimes referred to as Log Slitting. The log slitting terminology referrers back to the olden days of saw mills when they would cut logs into smaller sections. They would also use these saw mills to cut iron rods into smaller sections (see: Slitting mill).
Another use for a slitting machine is described in this article by World Intellectual Property Organization, where they use this process in their production of semi-conductors. “ 1. A slitter machine for slitting a film sheet wound on a core in a roll to obtain desired widths of film sheet for laminating onto metallic substrates of semiconductor devices comprising a main frame, means on the main frame for rotatably supporting the roll on the frame, a rotatable knife blade for slitting the roll sheet into a strip of desired width, knife blade mounting means on the frame for mounting the knife blade on the frame, means for tilting the knife blade mounting means into a desired position, means for adjusting the lateral position of the knife blade to adjust the width of the strip being cut, means for pressing the knife blade into the rolled sheet to cut the sheet into strips of the desired width, and means for limiting the depth of the cut. 2. The slitter machine of claim 1, including means for sensing the proximity of the core of the roll and, when the blade has reached a desired distance from the core, for withdrawing the knife blade to its start position at the outside perimeter of the roll. 3. The slitter machine of claim 1, the means on the main frame for rotatably supporting the roll on the frame comprising frame side walls, said roll having a shaft within the core with the shaft having end portions which extend outwardly from the core, and notches in the side walls for receiving and rotatably supporting the shaft end portions. 4. The slitter machine of claim 1, the rotatable knife blade having a flat cutting edge on one side of the blade, a tapered edge on the other side of the blade, and a hollow central portion in the cutting edge side of the knife blade to lessen the area on the cutting edge side of the knife blade that contacts the edge portions of the rolled sheet. 5. The slitter machine of claim 1, the knife blade mounting means comprising guide tracks mounted on top of the frame for guiding the knife blade mounting means in sidewise movement to position the knife blade at the proper position for cutting a strip of the roll sheet at a desired width, a bottom plate mounted on the guide tracks and having a front end and a rear end, a pair of support arms each having a rear end portion and a front end portion with a longitudinal slot in the front end portion, bolt pivot means for pivotally connecting the rear end portion of the support arms to the rear end portion of the bottom plate, a tiltable support plate, bolt pivot means pivotally connecting the support plate to the front end portions of the support arms through the slots in the support arms for adjusting the attitude assumed by the support plate, said support plate having a front surface and a rear surface, a notch in the rear surface of the support plate in its bottom portion for contacting the front end of the bottom plate no matter what attitude the support plate assumes, a pair of blade support rods connected at their bottom portions to a transverse shaft on which the blade is mounted, mounting means on the support plate for mounting the blade support rods on the support plate and for aligning the rods properly and for permitting slidable movement of the blade support rods so that the blade may be continuously extended to contact the roll to progressively cut the sheet into a strip of desired width, depth control means including a sensing roller operatively connected to the shaft of the knife blade for contacting the roll and limiting the depth of the cut, and pressing means for pressing the knife blade onto the roll and for pressing the depth control means into contact with the surface of the roll, said pressing means being an air cylinder mounted on the support plate and connected to the shaft of the knife blade for continuously pushing the knife blade and the sensing roller of the depth control means.” (http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/en/wo.jsp?wo=1993005912&IA=WO1993005912&DISPLAY=CLAIMS)
