Project

Pneumatic Top Blade Holder

A patented shear-cut system for high-speed slitting lines. We developed a solution that processes material webs with absolute precision and minimal wear.

Project image — system view
About the project

Innovative Pneumatics for Continuous Operation

In the industrial production of paper and film webs, downtime is a critical cost factor. On modern high-speed rewind slitting machines, conventional blade holders repeatedly ran into physical limits: vibration and heavy wear led to ragged cut edges and frequent maintenance intervals.

JSTec's task was to remove this bottleneck. We rethought the principle of “cutting on the fly” from first principles and designed a mechanical architecture that combines maximum smoothness of running with minimal setup times. The result is a system distinguished by intelligent material selection and a novel chamber design.

Project Goal

What the Project Set Out to Achieve

The overarching goal was to design a single top blade holder that guarantees a contact force which is absolutely constant and independent of travel.

Beyond that, the system had to damp operational vibration on its own and virtually eliminate fretting corrosion (tribo-oxidation). A further requirement was a modular design allowing components to be exchanged in seconds during operation, without elaborate special tooling.

Outcome

The Outcome of the Project

Using a patented twin-chamber piston-cylinder unit and a special elastomer buffer coupling, the contact force can now be controlled precisely. The system runs reliably in high-performance lines today and dependably protects sensitive components against mechanical overload.

Close-up of the mechanism
Sectional drawing of the pneumatic chamber