Sheeting and Choice of Sheeters:

Selecting the type of sheeter depends on several factors:

1- Type of material to be sheeted,

2- Amount of material to be sheeted either in quantity of sheets or tonnage,

3- Accuracy of finished goods.

Type of material and amount of material to be sheeted:

a- Board: This requires a heavy duty dual knife rotary sheeter for high production work. The width of the stock being used will dictate the width of the sheeter needed. Examples: Clark Aiken, S&H, Hamblet, Beck... If you are running short runs, then a guillotine type sheeter would be your most cost effective solution. Examples: Rosenthal sheeter

 

b- Paper, Film, Foil: Light weight materials can be sheeted with standard sheeters like Beck, Clark Aiken, Hamblet, S&H, etc., These come in various sizes and configurations; i.e. inline slitting, inline printing, inline embossing... before stock is sheeted. The overlapper, layboy and stacking sections also offer various options; i.e. fully automatic skid changers and auto reject systems for defective sheets. Some of the late model, fully computerized sheeters are capable of running at 1,200 feet per minute ! Unwind configurations can vary as well. Multiple roll unwind systems from one roll to 20 rolls are available that can be fully automated with auto floor pick-up, auto tension control, motor driven, etc.

Accuracy of Sheeting Machines:

a- Single Fly Sheeters: As a general rule of thumb, single fly sheeters (one fixed bed knife and a single rotating knife) have a cut accuracy of +/- 1/8 of an inch. This can be fine tuned down to +/- 1/16 of an inch. That's the best case scenario. If absolute "squareness" of finished product is required or specified by the customer, then the sheeted stock is "squared" on a paper cutter. This is an extra step and adds to the production costs.

 

b- Double Fly Precision Sheeters: These machines have two rotating blades. Sheets can be
"squared on the fly". As a rule, a double fly sheeter costs about 5 to 10 times more than a single fly sheeter. This puts it out of reach of most sheeting houses, unless they specialize in precision sheeting.

 

c- Speed: Production speeds are directly proportional to the stock being run. Some materials lend themselves to be run at full rated production speed of the sheeter. Other materials have to be run at extremely slow speeds. This has to be kept in mind when bidding on a job.

Other sheeting options:

Short to medium sized runs of materials such as leather, film, foils, plastics, woven and
nonwoven materials, SBS board, copper film, etc. can be achieved on a Rosenthal sheeter. Slitting, embossing, stitch bonding, hole punching, sonic welding, laminating, etc. can all be done inline before material is sheeted. A Rosenthal sheeter can be a most cost effective method of achieving the above results. Some materials are impossible to sheet on standard sheeters; i.e. heavy rubber mats, reinforced thick plastics or fiberglass. Specialized machines like the Impla or Famco are used for these hard to cut materials.

For additional information, please contact me at .....Email or 920-725-6543