Universal Converting Equipment has taken over the design and production of the renowned Mercer hotmelt coater laminators - and now has over 25 years of Mercer experience to call on.
Each unit is bespoke, being tailored to suit individual customer needs - but all share economy of running and very precise lay down characteristics.
Universal equipment can run a wide variety of substrates at speeds from 5 to 300 metres/minute on web widths from 12 to 2,500 mm. Coating weights are from just 1 gsm.
And while every machine differs to meet different performance and output needs, the quality of the design, construction, components and worldwide back up service remains constant.

The CL350

. Able to apply hot melt adhesive at speeds up to 200 m/min
. Coat weights of 1 gsm up to 200 gsm depending on application type
. Precise tension control for processing non-woven, paper and plastic materials
. Coating widths up to 350mm wide
. Water cooled coating roller
. Precision die mount
. Motorised adjustment for die positioning
.Die mount system designed for a range of coating technologies
.ITW Dynatec slot die
.ITW Dynatec APEX high speed intermittent hot melt coating
.ITW Dynatec Dynafiber for non-woven and breathable materials
.ITW Dynatec Dynaspeed system for high speed intermittent cold glue coating
.In-line adhesive coat weight scanning
.In-line slitting
.Differential rewind shaft
.Touch screen control
.Recipe system to retain parameters of machine set up
.Full diagnostic system with remote diagnostics via a telephone line

Benefits of a Universal coater laminator
Unrivalled experience in design and construction of bespoke coater laminators.
Designed using latest 3D CAD systems
Reel, sheet fed or combination of both.
Can coat film, paper, fabrics and foam up to 50 mm thick.
Web widths from 12 mm to 2.5 metres.
Coating weights from 1 gsm.
Machine speeds from 5 to 300 metres/minute.
Coating can be multi-stripe, multi-bead or total coverage.
Slot die extrusion or spray application.
Premelter selected to suit your needs.
Machine painted any colour to suit your requirements
Following can be fitted as required:
Print stations.
Siliconising.
Slitting.
Perforating.
Sheeting.
Corona treatment.
Multiple coating stations for multi-lamination.

Benefits of the Universal bespoke system
Made to suit your needs.
Designed around your product - not a standard unit that either has more features than you need or not enough, which will be expensive to add on.
Integrates into your production line - saving space and labour costs.
Modular construction can be changed or added to later.
Preferred components can be specified to help minimise your spares stock.
Pre-specification coating trials with your materials will ensure correct specification of the complete system.
We work with your engineers so that they fully understand how the machine works. Their input can be valuable in setting maintenance tasks.
On-site operator training provided.
Global back up.

Are you maximising your profits when printing or producing labels? A big percentage of label production is the material cost, especially if you buy in precoated stock. While your customers may accept that label stock is relatively expensive, need you?
If you were to produce your own label stock, you could offer a greater variety and size of label types (from high peel to high tack), make your pricing more competitive and improve your margins because you would not have to purchase expensive stock.
How? By fitting a Universal label coating station on your existing press or tape coater, you will be able to specify your own facing paper, liner paper and adhesive. Your customers can benefit from a better service, while you can explore new markets and make savings on precoated stock.

Bolted on

Universal hot melt adhesive coating stations can be retro-fitted to reel fed printing presses and narrow web tape coaters.
Can produce coatings of permanent, pressure sensitive or remoistenable adhesives.
Coatings can be full width, striped, beaded, spot, patterned or zoned for any type of label, tape or combined business forms and labels.
Station sizes vary from 150 to 500 mm.
The user can specify own facing paper, liner paper and adhesive to suit existing plant and current and future coating requirements.
Operation can be intermittent or continuous, in-line or off-line.

Technical aspects

The equipment uses hot melt adhesives. Hot melts contain no solvents and are easy and inexpensive to apply.
The coating module has a simple set-up system for controlling coating weights, stripe patterns and position. The heads for the main coating station module will cover the majority of process needs, including dual web laminations for speciality coupons and envelopes, and a wide variety of patterns, stripes and squares.
The equipment is capable of precise registration for continuous, intermittent and multi-shot applications.

Universal, and previously, Mercer, has been supplying the non-wovens industry for 25 years with its coater laminators.
All our equipment is purpose designed - often using common, proven, componentry to maximise reliability and minimise customers' spares stock.
New developments by ITW Dynatec - and we are its exclusive distributor in the UK - in individual strand coating has taken hot melt fiberisation technology to new heights (see photos).
This is enabling us to design, manufacture and supply coater laminators that will out perform any others on the market:

Fiberisation - for non-wovens
Adhesive thickness From 1 to 50 gsm.
Machine speeds Up to 450 m/minute.
Web widths Up to 4 m.
Substrates Textiles, non-wovens.

Duplex Centre Wind : Slitter Rewinder DCW 800
The DCW 800 duplex centre wind slitting machine is a new generation of slitter rewinder designed to overcome the weaknesses of existing equipment. The DCW 800 slitter is the result of years of experience in both the design and operation of slitter and rewinder equipment. It has been designed without compromise to combine the requirement for a highly productive slitting machine with the need to produce products of the highest quality.


Specifications

• Max slitting speed 800 m/min
• Max Unwind Diameter 1000mm(shafted)/1300mm(shaftless)
• Max Web Width 1300mm, 1600mm 1800mm
• Max Rewind Diameter 800mm
• Slitting Type: Razor, Shear and Crush
• Minimum Slit Width 20mm
• Automatic knife positioning
• Trim winders or trim extraction
• Siemens S7 PLC
• AC Digital Vector Drives
• Colour TFT Touch screen
• Remote Diagnostics
• Full differential Rewind Shafts
• Laser core alignment (Computacore T)
• Automatic roll unloading
• Shafted or Shaftless

Ease of Operation

All aspects of the machine operation have been refined to maximise product quality and consistency whilst minimising down time. The modular construction allows a range of options to be easily integrated into the machine construction.

Touch Screen Operator Interface

• Colour touch screen operator interface with easy to understand graphics
• Full recipe system to allow all the operating parameters to be saved and retrieved at a later date.
• Complete diagnostics

Advanced Drive and Control System

The DCW800 has the latest Siemens digital drive and control system.

• Siemens S7 PLC programmed with the latest winder control algorithms to give the optimum control.
• Digital AC flux vector drives. Unlike other drive systems they will never need calibration.
• Digital communication between the PLC drives eliminating problems with noise and signal drift with analogue systems.
• Digital speed feedback from the motors ensuring precise speed control.
• Advanced diagnostic capabilities. All the operating parameters of the machine and drive system can be viewed on the operator display or remotely using the Universal Remote Diagnostic System.
• Once the optimum conditions have been determined all the machine parameters can be saved using the recipe system for recall at a later date.
• Capability for connection to company network via Ethernet to allow real time data on the machine operation to be viewed and historic data stored.

Total Tension Control System

The Total Tension Control System (TTCS) has been developed by Universal Converting Equipment to overcome the deficiencies of alternative systems and so provide the ultimate tension control system. On most slitting machines the material tension will vary during the acceleration and deceleration phases due the energy required to overcome the inertia of the reels and the dynamic loses of the drive system. Without feedback of the web tension it is not possible to correct these tension shifts. TTCS is a "closed loop" rewind tension control system. Load cells provide feedback of the actual rewind tension and this is compared with the required tension. Through the use of digital technology, the drives make adjustments in milliseconds to maintain the required tension profile and ensure high quality of slit reels.

The operator interface displays the required tension and the actual tension of both rewinds and the unwind. This data is generated by these motors is logged to the system memory and historic data can be viewed. Alternatively, this data can be saved via an Ethernet link to an external PC allowing a complete record of the tension profile of all rolls produced to be retained.

The DCW 800 has a "fast stop" emergency stop system which will stop all drives in under one second from maximum speed. The safety circuit is dual circuit with redundancy to conform to current regulations. Emergency stop buttons, trip wires and light guards are fitted in the appropriate places and the machine is fully guarded.

Energy Efficiency

The drive system used on the DCW 800 slitter rewinder has been designed to minimize energy usage. During most of its operation the motor on the main drive on the machine will be acting as a brake, as will the motor on a driven unwind if fitted. The DCW 800 links all the drives together so that the energy being generated by these motors will be used to power the rewind motor

Total Integration

All the systems on the machine are totally integrated with the main control system ensuring that all information is shared. Set up of the guider, core alignment and knife positioning are all through the main operator interface.

Full differential rewind shaft

The DCW 800 slitting machine is fitted with full differential rewind shafts so there is no need to position individual chucks each time the slit pattern changes. The Universal chucks grip the inside of the core. Differential control relies on the drive between the shaft and the inside of the core chuck. Other designs can rely on friction between the inside of the core and the chuck to create the drive. These systems require high specification core and are prone to dust generation when operating at high tension and side movement of the cores when operating at low tension.

As with other aspects of the machine, Universal refuse to compromise quality through the use of inappropriate technology.

The Universal DCW 800 slitter rewinder is the ultimate high quality, high productivity duplex centre wind slitting machine.