Single-face corrugated cardboard products are by their very nature extremely difficult products to handle on most corrugator conveyor systems. This is a very flimsy product to keep under control at the best of times… So, keeping control of it at all stages is paramount for you to efficiently run single-face products at higher speeds.
Single Face Corrugator Conveyor System
Single-face corrugated cardboard: This is a type of cardboard that has only one layer of fluted paper, which is attached to a flat sheet of paper. It is often used for cushioning, wrapping, or as a separator between layers of products.
Handling challenges: Single-face corrugated cardboard is very fragile and prone to bending, tearing, or curling. It requires careful control and alignment on the conveyor belts, especially at high speeds. Any misalignment or damage can affect the quality and appearance of the final product.
Control solutions: Some possible solutions to improve the control and handling of single-face corrugated cardboard are using vacuum belts and tension control systems. These can help reduce waste, downtime, and maintenance costs.
In this video, I share with you, one way of keeping control of your product and maintaining production at good speeds over long runs.
Credit for this video goes to its owners:
See this single-face product transported on a corrugator conveyor vacuum system. Here you can see how easy it is for the single-face product to move along the corrugator conveyor and stack very well. This is a very ingenious method for transporting this product after it has passed through the NC Cutter.
Corrugator Take-Off with Side Roller Conveyor
Here is another type of take-off corrugator conveyor system running a two-ply corrugator product at good speeds. The following video shows 3-out products being handled successfully with this roller conveyor system.
Credit for this video goes to its owners:
This video demonstrates how a wide 2ply product is processed on a corrugator conveyor. Where the product is held very well throughout the full length of the converting machinery.
Auto Bundle Stacker Corrugator Conveyor System
There are many types and makes of take-off conveyor systems available in the open marketplace today. Some of these corrugator conveyors are built from the ground up to handle faster speeds from day one.
Automatic Bundle Stackers are a great investment at the end of a corrugator production line. With these bundle stackers, you get a lot for your money. They are very easy and fast to control or alter on the HMI unit, to accommodate your next order change. These conveyors help you make a fast order changeover, therefore helping to reduce waste and time on your production line.
A good conveyor designed to handle the higher speeds you wish to use or expect from your sheet conveyor is a worthwhile investment to make. Operators and sheet take-off people will appreciate a sound corrugator take-off conveyor system. It will last an exceptionally long time running every day, with truly little maintenance required.
The ultimate result here is that you can expect to have a corrugator conveyor system that produces high volumes of production with little interruption. So overall productivity is maintained for a considerable length of time.
The operation of these conveyors is designed to be simple to operate efficiently with an easy-to-use HMI touch screen that is self-intuitive to follow your requirements for any set-up parameters.
Here is a different type of take-off for more fragile materials of cardboard. Especially when you desire to have an unmarked cardboard surface during handling from the corrugator to your stack. With the use of other devices these are matched to be used on specific materials so minimal or no marking is guaranteed during the stacking and delivery of the bundles.
These more special-purpose conveyors are usually built for use on dedicated products where the sheets are carefully handled on the take-off conveyors. The use of air systems plays a major part in these units, either in compressed or vacuum sections as these are fully automatic sheet handling conveyors.
Manual Take-Off Corrugator Conveyors
This type of conveyor system is used extensively in many industries. Which involves manual handling of products in the packaging and transport of many distinct products. They are placed after the NC Cutter where the sheets are then conveyed to the auto bundle stackers at high speed, or to the manual take-off conveyors at the end of various products of production lines.
Many of these manual take-off conveyors are used to collect sheets from behind NC Cutters on Sheeters, solid board Laminators, and Corrugators for a very wide range of products. The speed of these conveyors also varies over a wide range to suit the produce range of the production line they are put to use on.
These conveyors in the short form are also used to feed several types of production machinery used in sheet and box manufacturing plants. The flat belt conveyors are used in the outgoing production line of automated box-making and sheet printing machinery.
The Auto Down Stacker System
This type of conveyor is used on high-speed corrugators where the sheets of corrugated cardboard are stacked directly onto the base conveyor. When the required number of sheets have been placed on the unit, the incoming sheets are then held up in a holding fashion. When the stack is lowered and moved out of the down stacking unit, onto the warehouse conveyor system for further processing on other machines afterward. This operation only takes about 15 to 20 seconds. This allows the corrugator to continuously run at high speed in a fully automatic mode.
Generally, there are no pallets inserted into the down stacker on high-speed corrugators. Whereas in other plants, pallets are used and automatically placed or inserted on the down-stacker floor conveyor. Overall, this is a very efficient way to remove the finished sheets from the corrugator. These auto-down stackers run for years with only minimal maintenance required.
A good, designed auto down stacker unit may not need an operator to be in attendance all the time, they often do multi-tasking which leads to high productivity on the corrugator.
Product Damage
Product damage is often the result of poor thought put into the complete production line process capability. The sheet take-off part can be the most neglected area as it is not seen as in great need of the attention it requires. If the correct equipment is not supplied in the first place, products will be forever damaged as they travel through the conveyor system.
Thin or light materials such as single-face or single-ply materials that are fragile will become prone to tearing, bending, or crushing during transportation. This can affect the quality and appearance of the final product, as well as causing waste.
Therefore, to avoid jams, misfeeding, or misalignments which can disrupt the production process and reduce efficiency products need to be held in control at all times. Many light materials will need to be held in control to achieve speed and continuous production expectations.
