Horizontal Oscillating Hauloff Maximizes Choices For Blown Film Producers

Horizontal Oscillating Hauloff Maximizes Choices For Blown Film Producers

Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering has introduced a horizontal oscillating hauloff for blown film producers. Units are available in a range of sizes to cover almost all blown film web widths. This horizontal unit is said to complement the company's Traversanip vertical oscillatinghauloff.

Each design takes a different approach to randomizing gage banding to ensure optimal finished roll quality. The vertical oscillating hauloff provides complete gage band randomizationin virtually all applications. Thenew horizontal oscillating hauloffis said to be best suited for certain types of film and processing conditions.

According to Robert Weeks, Battenfeld Gloucester's Vice President of Sales and Marketing, "Apart from those relatively few instances where the horizontal unit can provide processing benefits, we are interested in giving our blown film clients the technology they are most comfortable using. There are many highly experienced film producers who, for their own reasons, prefer the horizontal technology. We want them to enjoy the high quality film that results from our extruders, dies, bubble cooling and handling systems, winders, and advanced process controls­with the hauloff they want."

Battenfeld Gloucester's customer laboratory now has two coextrusion blown film lines, one with vertical hauloff and one with horizontal. The company provides this facility to processors so they can personally experience the technology and decide what works best for their specific film products.

The new horizontal oscillating hauloff uses a mechanism that controls rotation of the air turning bars permits them to rotate as freely as normal path rollers when the unit is in the thread-up mode. The device that locks the turning bars in the correct running position activates when the oscillating movement starts or a certain line speed is reached.

The interior construction of the air turning bars assures uniform distribution of air along the entire length of the bar for optimum film handling. The size and placement of the air holes has been modified to support the newest and most demanding process technologies. An additional configuration option allows the unit to be used when processing sticky adhesive films by floating the film on an air cushion with no contact between the film and the turning bars.

The horizontal hauloff's design is said to be operator-friendly and to allow easy access for maintenance and reduced startup time. The horizontal unit is available for delivery on lines ordered now and is included in the company's single source professional training and ongoing process support programs.

Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. - Gloucester, MA