This final thesis report gathers the process set up and technology improvement of a cutting and application unit of disposable tape. All this work is realized in collaboration with the company Fameccanica.Data S.p.A., located in Via Aterno 98, Sambuceto di Teatino, Italy.
This unit in particular is a part of a production line of baby diapers. Till now this unit is used to apply patches of disposable tape at 500ppm (pieces per minute). The tests goal is to reach a defined application speed of 1000ppm. Is the first one of this kind of units in the world that it reaches that speed. In order to study the way to speed up the unit, we acquired all the relevant data for each
process speed. We started doing an analysis without raw material of the vibration of the unit making short time acquirements (10 seconds each acquirement of data) for each velocity (from 100ppm to 1000ppm in intervals of 100ppm) and then making a dry run long time analysis (6 hours to analyze the stationary behavior of all the relevant variables). During the tests we have observed the temperature trend of the critical components (Thermical analysis), the noise and the motor torque trend of the unit and its vibration behavior in each
velocity in order to check if all it is ok to speed up the unit. The results that we obtained have shown us that the temperature, torque and noise trends are correct in the new velocity without problems. The vibration produced by the rotation cuts in the chosen position of the counter-weight is a little bit high, but it can be assumed by the unit in the production process without problems. We choose the position that minimizes the
vibration effect analyzing the acquired data.
When we have finished these analyses and we have chosen the right way to work with the
unit at 1000ppm, we started analyzing the product results with raw material with the unit assembled in the test bench (that we have assembled in 3D CAD format first) in order to check if the real process is working correctly at the scope velocity in the real application and to design the improvement kit for the unit to reach our goals. The conclusion of all this study is that is very necessary to do an accurate study of viability of the relevant variables in any upgrade that you want to perform in a unit or machine in order to do it correctly before the real testing process, and test it correctly in a bench test to see it in its real application to check if any improvement kit is needed. I also noticed the importance
of the R&D work in the technology growing of a company. It can be summed up as “nonstop
innovation”, like the Fameccanica.Data slogan.
