Get cleaner cuts in stretch-film roll changes.

Two machine builders recently launched new knife cutters for cast stretch film that avoid making a fold-over flap when changing rolls. These devices rotate into position close to the new core and pin the film before cutting. Battenfeld Gloucester Engineering Co. in Gloucester, Mass., combines the rotating knife assembly with an electrostatic charger to pin the film to the new core before firing the knife through the web (see photo) and pasting it cleanly onto the new core. Unlike a typical "flying knife," the knife is fixed on the arm, which moves. Gloucester has shipped six of its new cutting assemblies for stretch film since last fall. Tel: [phone] * PTDirect: 837KP

Also late last year, Dolci Extrusion in Milan, Italy, delivered its first Contrawind 2000 winder for stretch film, which uses a rotating cutting arm with an opposing pressure roll to put tension on the stretchy web and avoid making a flap of film at the start of a new roll. Tel: [phone] * www.dolciextrusion.it

The rotating cutting arm was first used by Black Clawson Converting Machinery, Fulton, N.Y. (now part of Davis-Standard), whose patent recently expired (U.S. Patent 4,422,586 issued Dec. 1983).

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