Schober Die-Cutter Increases 6-Pack Carrier Production

Published: June 12, 2013

CINCINNATI, OH | Thirsty beer drinkers can slake their thirst faster thanks to a two-piece carrier design aided by rotary die-cutting technology offered by Schober USA. Working in-line as a “slave” with a folder/gluer, the Schober RSM operates at speeds of 150 mpm (492 fpm) and more on a 24/7 basis—producing significantly more beverage carriers than the traditional one-piece design.

Paper, bottle, and can carriers were once the domain of single-piece construction, which is slow to produce and requires a substantial amount of printed high quality cardboard. A key to this greatly enhanced production speed is the structured inner frames, which are designed to be integrated into open basket carriers and top-grips. One of the key elements for speeding up the production was to replace the current blank feeder at the folder/gluer lines by Schober RSM machines, working in-line with the folder/gluer.

The in-line cutting process of the inner frames (especially combined with a new inner frame design) allows manufacturers to save raw material by nesting their inner frames, to use lighter weight cardboard supplied on a reel and to eliminate an additional off-line inner frame blank die-cutting process. By integrating the RSM in-line with the folder/gluer a two-step process has become one-step, eliminating unnecessary machine stops. This leads to much greater efficiency.

Additionally, material can be saved with the rotary design, because less gripper waste is generated when the previous sheetfed cutting process is replaced by in-line processing with the Schober RSM.

Despite the dramatic increase in speed over contemporary single-piece design manufacture, the RSM technology is continuously synchronously driven, which helps maintaining precise register accuracy, in-line with the folder/gluer when merging the in-line die-cut inner frames with the constantly fed outer parts (already printed/decorated) of the basket carrier. Micrometric die wear compensation adjustment provides cost-effective cutting technology and unparalleled service life. In addition to die-cutting beverage carriers, RSM technology is well suited for a wide range of papers, films, and foils including OPP, PE, PS, and PET foil, coated paper laminates, and composites as well as technical nonwoven materials.

The RSM family is available with working widths of up to 850 mm (33.5 in). Typical die circumference is 17–25 in. and in some cases up to 51 in. The RSM machines are made to work either in-line—as slave—with web fed printing, converting machines, and folder/gluers or can be used as stand alone off-line version. Their main purpose is cutting, punching, and creasing products, in many cases including the stacking of the die-cut products. Schober in-line solutions can be connected to machines provided by OEM partners or retrofitted to existing machines at customers premises.

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