Zeroseam belts boost tube winding machine performance

At Sonoco Consumer Products in Mechelen, Belgium, machines are hardly ever standing still, producing cardboard tubes for the food industry non-stop. Employing 20,000 people in 33 countries, the Belgian company is part of the Sonoco Group, a manufacturer of paper tubes and cores and supplier of
a multitude of packaging solutions. As production time is of the essence, every minute saved in machine maintenance counts. A key factor in the frictionless performance of the spiral tube winding machines used for producing paper cores is the tube winding belt. This belt applies pressure to the
product to achieve the required level of adhesion between the individual layers of paper. Requiring strong tension, high flexibility and a firm grip as well as abrasion resistance, this application poses a unique set of challenges for the belts’ design.

Due to the winding machines’ high production
speeds, high levels of stress are exerted on the tube winding belts. The polyamide belts previously used at the Mechelen plant had to be replaced frequently, incurring significant maintenance costs and machine downtimes. Sonoco contacted Bogaert Transmission – Nitta’s partner in Belgium that has more than 35 years
of experience in transmission and conveying solutions. Working together, Nitta and Bogaert’s service teams identified the rigidity of the belt material as the reason for the high wear. To increase the belts’ service life, they recommended Nitta’s new Zeroseam ZS-TWL-42H.

Read the full article in the March issue of DPA