Web Industries Announces a Major Upgrade

Published: August 15, 2012

MARLBOROUGH, MA | Web Industries is expanding the services it offers to consumer and medical product companies through upgrades to existing equipment and the commercialization of recently developed technologies at its facility in Fort Wayne, IN. The location processes nonwovens and films that are found in a variety of home and medical categories. These materials include fluid acquisition and superabsorbent layers found in personal care and home cleaning products, technical textiles used in specialty filters, and multilayer assemblies for advanced wound care applications.

The equipment upgrades involve two of the largest converting lines in the world, known inside the plant as “Machine 64 and “Machine 76.” Machine 64, believed by the company to be the longest custom-designed high-speed film slitting and spooling line in existence, is said to produce enough slit film every 31 hours to circle the Earth. The phased upgrades will take about six months to complete, with no loss of production. In addition to replacing parts reaching the end of their scheduled life, engineering teams are making design changes to key machine components that will increase capacity by improving material usage efficiency and throughput while meeting all quality assurance benchmarks.

The company says Machine 76 is the largest large-format nonwovens and film spooler in the world. In a series of phased upgrades over six months, it will receive a total electronics upgrade that will new control interfaces, runtime data collection systems, and future-material programmability.

Web Industries has also recently developed and commercialized two manufacturing technologies for flexible materials. One is an ultrasonic bonding/embossing system that can combine multiple materials on a continuous web, reportedly at commercial-production speed; the other is a hot melt spray lamination method that offers what is called unique laminate material flexibility and control.

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