TECNO PAPER advanced technology and innovative solutions for winding Super Soft and Structured TISSUE

On the Tissue market it is constantly increasing the demand of bulky and soft products. The reels coming from the Tissue Machines consequently have a low density that makes them difficult to handle in rewinding and converting lines. Most of the problems, and of the limits in speed and productivity, in rewinding Super Soft high volume tissue grades, are due to the high deformability of both mother and finished reels.

The study of the technical team in Tecno Paper has been therefore mainly directed to find process solutions avoiding deformation of the reels, but at the same time allowing an operator friendly use of the rewinding line and an increase of productivity.

More than ten years ago, Tecno Paper had alreadydeveloped and installed in several paper mills a type of unwinder, named MultiFunction (Figure 1), with double unwind system: peripheral with belts and centre drive with direct connection of the reel spool to the driving motor. This type of unwinder helped to solve many problems and to increase performances, thanks to the possibility to use both systems together or separately; but in certain cases and for certain applications it was not enough.

This is why Tecno Paper has developed, and patented, also different rewinding solutions purposely dedicated to “difficult to wind” products to avoid the Super Soft reels are permanently deformed and the loss of bulk is huge. The last product which comes in to join the family of the TP-Soft Touch equipment is the new Unwinder (Figure 2), designed and developed by Tecno Paper’s technical team. It is fitted with innovative and dedicated drive and control systems for low density tissue reels, thus allowing to reach, and ensuring, high precision, accuracy and productivity for the unwind process on rewinding lines.

TP-Soft Touch, the innovative winding concept of Tecno Paper for Super Soft Tissue

The main features of the TP-Soft Touch Unwinder are:

• Two large diameter carbon fiber rolls (carrying drums), independently driven by variable speed motors;
• Centre drive assist, with two variable speed motors, that nullifies the rotation inertia of the reel spool;
• Fast reel change with automatic empty spool transfer to a parking station;
• Load cells under the bearing housings of the two carrying drums;
• Hydraulic or mechanical systems performing the vertical movement of the carriages holding the reel spool;
• Pneumatic device able to absorb reasonable off-roundness of the parent reels.

The features of the TP-Soft Touch Unwinder allows to reach the following performances:

• Less specific pressure to have the needed rotation movement, thanks to extended nip on carrying drums;
• No «torsion» effect in the structure of the reel, thanks to centre drive assist;
• Increased operation efficiency, thanks to fast reel change;
• High precision and constant NIP control, thanks to load cells measurement of NIP and reel weight;
• Even unwinding operation, thanks to high precision vertical movement of reel spool carriages; The TP-Soft Touch Unwinder doesn’t give any deformation to the tissue reels and it can be installed in existing Rewinding Lines and Converting Lines as well.

The use of the TP-Soft Touch Unwinder is simple and intuitive: its control is integrated in the control of the rewindng line, that is obtained by a high speed PLC. The HMI (main screen and local panels) display in real time all the parameters related to the process for total control and handling of the operations. An important function of the control system is the possibility to enter the data related to the grade of tissue and to the reels to be processed thus allowing the system to set, in a fully automatic way, all the process parameter during the operation. TP-Soft Touch Unwinder is ready for the full integration TP-Win 4.0, that is the Supervision Software for the rewinding process developed for the intelligent mill of Industry 4.0.

Furthermore, on each section there is an additional panel used for the TP-Service, that is the remote TeleService for assistance directly from Tecno Paper headquarter. Benefits offered by the innovative winding concept TP-Soft Touch:

• Reels (mother and finished) fully supported during all the process by full width carrying drums;
• High precision NIP control of reels against carrying drums, at both unwind and wind-up positions thanks to special hydraulic or mechanical relieving systems, both working in “Closed Loop” mode with constant feedback from the on board sensors;
• Minimized bulk and crepe loss;
• No deformation of the reels is generated at both unwind and wind-up positions;
• High operation efficiency thanks to spools and shaft automatic removal and handling;
• Operator friendly control system and HMI;
• Easy to switch from “Closed Loop” automatic NIP control to “Open Loop” control by curves set in the control system and adjustable by the operator;
• Integration with TP-Win 4.0 e TP-Service.

The TP-Soft Touch Unwinder is the natural completion of the High Performance rewinding lines of last generation developed by Tecno Paper for processing Super Soft and high bulk tissue.