The line features a mechatronic polishing stack, called the Everex Hybrid, which presents new possibilities in terms of downgauging. Standard polishing stacks are limited in producing PP films that are thinner than approximately 380 microns. An additional air slot die can make possible even thinner films — but that strategy cramps the line’s productivity.
Reifenhauser’s Everex Hybrid polishing stack meets this challenge by combining three rolls with an air slot die, which can be activated as needed. A special, flexibly swiveling third roller enables a wide range of film thicknesses from 2,500 microns down to 150 microns. The mechatronic control ensures 100 percent reproducibility.
According to the company, the Everex Hybrid is particularly suitable for PP films, but is also appropriate with other applications. It is ideal for manufacturers with varying product requirements and frequent product changes, and can be easily integrated into existing systems.
The Everex line also enables the efficient use of barrier raw materials thanks to new edge encapsulation technology that keeps expensive barrier materials from being wasted in the edge areas of the film. Saving materials from those areas — which are cut off before winding — can save more than $170,000 per year on barrier films, and ensure that the edges can be recycled and returned to production.
Unlike other systems, which encapsulate the barrier layer at the die, Reifenhäuser’s now encapsulates the material in the coextrusion adapter.
At the K show, the Everex also demonstrated the company’s optional PAM 2.0, the latest generation of its PAM control. The PAM — which stands for precises, autonomous, mechatronic — provides automatic adjustments of film width. (Read more about PAM 2.0 in an upcoming issue of PMM and online.)
“With automated width adjustment, we integrate the necessary process knowledge directly into the machine,” Perrevort said. “This enables our customers to reliably increase efficiency, quality and reproducibility for maximum overall equipment effectiveness (OEE).”
For more intuitive operation, the Everex line features a next-generation HMI, designed to be easy to use, even by inexperienced operators.
As technologies become more complex, tools to help operators use the machines become more critical, so that manufacturers can continue to benefit from all the advances machine makers have made, he said.
Automation like what’s on the Everex could eventually transform how plants look — allowing them to run with fewer operators, with people working in offices, rather than the plant floor, monitoring all of production.
Editor Ron Shinn contributed reporting from K 2025.
