If you can effectively manage the tension of the thin web material as it moves across rollers and through web handling equipment, you will be able to greatly reduce product quality issues and the risk of material damage, such as tears or wrinkling, and can improve the overall performance of your web line.

This video, presented by industry expert Steve Lange, offers practical steps to choose tension setpoints and reduce tension variation by using the MapleSim Web Handling library to model the production system under various operating conditions. Process engineers can then apply the findings to guide the design of common elements for controlling tension, such as nips, dancers, brakes, load cells, and control loops.

Winding and unwinding systems are typically part of transporting R2R product before and after converting processes. Even with thin materials such as plastic films or precision products, the winding roll quickly increases in diameter, especially for fast web flows over 2000fpm. Usually, the rewind torque needs to be varied as the diameter of the roll builds up in order to maintain tension. For this greater control, dancers or closed loop controls can be used.

MapleSim models allow engineers to test and compare different control strategies, and to explore the effect of using web materials that sag, or have different values for elasticity or coefficient of friction. Our component library includes nip and idler rollers, drive and brake drums, dancers and control elements, allowing a fast and efficient way of modeling your R2R machine.