Narrow Web Corona Treaters Take "Flight" with Topflight Corporation
Company Overview
Topflight Corporation, formed in 1943 as a small World War II aircraft component manufacturer in Pennsylvania, originally developed systems for printing component part identifications on adhesive tape. Since its inception, Topflight has pioneered many innovations in high-speed processing of labels, nameplates, and data plates that include design and preparation for the Electronics industry, Pharmaceutical Diagnostic industry, and serve label customers in Home and Beauty Aids, Cosmetics, Durable Goods, and Automotive industries. Today, Topflight offers high-speed, rotary printing in a variety of processes including flexographic, gravure, letterpress, screen, hot-stamping and digital printing. In additional to printing, Topflight has added a variety of converting equipment to offer complete service for all die-cutting, laminating, coating, and stripping needs.
The Topflight Corporation runs full production of screen-printing, flexo, letterpress, gravure, and hot-stamping equipment. “We use all of these processes,” says Mr. Charles Brown, Vice President of Manufacturing Technology at Topflight, “and most of them can be run in combination, i.e. flexo and gravure, letterpress, flexo and screen, flexo and hot stamping, screen and hot stamping, etc.. We also use butt splice units, web cleaners, laminators, flat bed and rotary die-cutting units on most of our presses.”
The Challenge
According to Brown, “today’s narrow web label industry is confronted with the same challenges as any mature business worldwide. There’s a great need to manufacture our products with an emphasis on faster, better and cheaper.” Brown continues, “The search for cheaper and better almost always leads to the substrate. Our suppliers have responded with some very good high performance products. Unfortunately, some of these products have a very low energy level making it difficult to convert. Water based ink systems, as well as UV curable inks, have unique flow characteristics that require converters to change the dyne level of the substrate. To do that at Topflight, we chose Pillar.”
The Solution
In order to determine the proper equipment to use at Topflight, Pillar Technologies ran test samples in their lab in Hartland, Wisconsin. Topflight supplied the Pillar team with the substrates and Pillar ensured they could achieve proper dyne levels per application. Since initial testing, and over the past decade, Pillar Technologies has supplied the Topflight Corporation with six 500 series Power Supplies ranging from 1kW to 5kW, six Narrow Web cantilever or EZ-thread corona treaters to treat widths from 8” to 16”, and six OZD-100 Ozone Destruct System units.
Topflight is now using Pillar corona treaters on their narrow web flexo, letterpress, and screen presses. Prior to this, the company had been using a different corona supplier but wanted to switch due to ‘the product not performing up to expectations’. Mr. Brown goes on to say, “one reason we chose Pillar Narrow Web Corona Treaters was the fact that Pillar gave me the information I needed to make the correct choice prior to purchasing our first corona treater from them.”
The Outcome & Benefits
Plans for Topflight include expansion in which Mr. Brown explains, “corona treating will play an even bigger role in the future.” Pillar Technologies will be ready to meet the needs and challenges of Topflight’s inevitable growth with the introduction of the new unitized Narrow Web Corona Treater system. Agreeing with Mr. Browns philosophy of having to be faster, better and cheaper, the new unitized corona treater is Pillar’s most flexible and compact narrow web system available. The unit features a removable electrode magazine with factory-wired, hands-free high-voltage connection for ease of installation and use. Simple to clean and maintain, the Narrow Web Corona Treater is designed for use in almost any flexo, label, or converting applications from 7.5 to 26 inches.
This extremely cost-conscious, compact treater mounts directly onto existing presses. Standard units are equipped with front access single point gap adjustment and power supply control panel. Integrated power supply ranges from .5 kW to 2.5 kW per side including front digital control panel. Automatic proportional speed control, computer interfacing and watt density controller are also available. Specified systems may even incorporate optional web cleaner, web guide, and static control equipment directly into the system. The unitized Narrow Web from Pillar is just one way of answering the needs of pinnacle performance operations like Topflight.
Building on a long history of engineering, design, printing, and converting excellence, Topflight Corporation has become an international leader, offering truly innovative printing and converting solutions every day. Always on the cutting edge, Topflight Corporation is continually working to develop or improve techniques to meet specific market demands, which sets them apart from the standard “label house.” Pillar is proud to be a part of Topflight’s continued growth and success.
Narrow Web Corona Treaters Take Flight with Topflight Corporation
Company Overview
Topflight Corporation, formed in 1943 as a small World War II aircraft component manufacturer in Pennsylvania, originally developed systems for printing component part identifications on adhesive tape. Since its inception, Topflight has pioneered many innovations in high-speed processing of labels, nameplates, and data plates that include design and preparation for the Electronics industry, Pharmaceutical Diagnostic industry, and serve label customers in Home and Beauty Aids, Cosmetics, Durable Goods, and Automotive industries. Today, Topflight offers high-speed, rotary printing in a variety of processes including flexographic, gravure, letterpress, screen, hot-stamping and digital printing. In additional to printing, Topflight has added a variety of converting equipment to offer complete service for all die-cutting, laminating, coating, and stripping needs.
The Topflight Corporation runs full production of screen-printing, flexo, letterpress, gravure, and hot-stamping equipment. “We use all of these processes,” says Mr. Charles Brown, Vice President of Manufacturing Technology at Topflight, “and most of them can be run in combination, i.e. flexo and gravure, letterpress, flexo and screen, flexo and hot stamping, screen and hot stamping, etc.. We also use butt splice units, web cleaners, laminators, flat bed and rotary die-cutting units on most of our presses.”
The Challenge
According to Brown, “today’s narrow web label industry is confronted with the same challenges as any mature business worldwide. There’s a great need to manufacture our products with an emphasis on faster, better and cheaper.” Brown continues, “The search for cheaper and better almost always leads to the substrate. Our suppliers have responded with some very good high performance products. Unfortunately, some of these products have a very low energy level making it difficult to convert. Water based ink systems, as well as UV curable inks, have unique flow characteristics that require converters to change the dyne level of the substrate. To do that at Topflight, we chose Pillar.”
The Solution
In order to determine the proper equipment to use at Topflight, Pillar Technologies ran test samples in their lab in Hartland, Wisconsin. Topflight supplied the Pillar team with the substrates and Pillar ensured they could achieve proper dyne levels per application. Since initial testing, and over the past decade, Pillar Technologies has supplied the Topflight Corporation with six 500 series Power Supplies ranging from 1kW to 5kW, six Narrow Web cantilever or EZ-thread corona treaters to treat widths from 8” to 16”, and six OZD-100 Ozone Destruct System units.
Topflight is now using Pillar corona treaters on their narrow web flexo, letterpress, and screen presses. Prior to this, the company had been using a different corona supplier but wanted to switch due to ‘the product not performing up to expectations’. Mr. Brown goes on to say, “one reason we chose Pillar Narrow Web Corona Treaters was the fact that Pillar gave me the information I needed to make the correct choice prior to purchasing our first corona treater from them.”
The Outcome & Benefits
Plans for Topflight include expansion in which Mr. Brown explains, “corona treating will play an even bigger role in the future.” Pillar Technologies will be ready to meet the needs and challenges of Topflight’s inevitable growth with the introduction of the new unitized Narrow Web Corona Treater system. Agreeing with Mr. Browns philosophy of having to be faster, better and cheaper, the new unitized corona treater is Pillar’s most flexible and compact narrow web system available. The unit features a removable electrode magazine with factory-wired, hands-free high-voltage connection for ease of installation and use. Simple to clean and maintain, the Narrow Web Corona Treater is designed for use in almost any flexo, label, or converting applications from 7.5 to 26 inches.
This extremely cost-conscious, compact treater mounts directly onto existing presses. Standard units are equipped with front access single point gap adjustment and power supply control panel. Integrated power supply ranges from .5 kW to 2.5 kW per side including front digital control panel. Automatic proportional speed control, computer interfacing and watt density controller are also available. Specified systems may even incorporate optional web cleaner, web guide, and static control equipment directly into the system. The unitized Narrow Web from Pillar is just one way of answering the needs of pinnacle performance operations like Topflight.
Building on a long history of engineering, design, printing, and converting excellence, Topflight Corporation has become an international leader, offering truly innovative printing and converting solutions every day. Always on the cutting edge, Topflight Corporation is continually working to develop or improve techniques to meet specific market demands, which sets them apart from the standard “label house.” Pillar is proud to be a part of Topflight’s continued growth and success.
For more information on this article, please contact Pillar Technologies at (888) PILLAR-6 or email us at treaters@pillartech.com.
There are two basic types of corona treater stations. One type of system is designed to treat non-conductive materials. This system uses a metal electrode over a dielectrically covered roll.
The other type of system is designed to treat conductive substrates. Early designs used a series of driven covered rotating electrodes placed over a bare grounded roll, enabling the conductive web to be grounded. The newer design is an open style, called bare roll, which extracts the ozone between two fixed ceramic tubes, cooling the electrodes, as well. The ceramic tubes are placed over a bare grounded roll.
Corona Treater Systems
Narrow Web Treating Systems
Though both types of systems are used on narrow web presses, the bare roll style (conductive design) has been more popular in recent years. This is primarily due to the compact design and because it can treat both conductive and nonconductive materials, although not as efficiently. The harder to treat materials require higher power levels, making treater versatility more important.
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The increase in power has also caused treater stations to become larger. Since space on a narrow web press is very limited the challenge to treater manufacturers recently, has been to develop compact designs which can handle higher power levels and efficiently treat conductive and nonconductive substrates.
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In order to improve treat levels, many newer designs incorporate two electrode assemblies. One with a metal electrode and the other with ceramic electrodes. These assemblies are mounted over a ceramic covered roll. The operator then connects the appropriate assembly for the type of substrate.
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These designs improve the efficiency of treating nonconductive webs (metal electrode over a ceramic roll), however, the dual dielectric combination (ceramic electrodes and ceramic roll) is less efficient for conductive materials. This style treater station is also fairly large due to the need for two electrode assemblies.
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The newer approaches incorporate an open style bare roll design, which employs an electrode magazine and an easy roll change mechanism. The user can quickly change from covered roll to bare roll by changing magazines. This feature also enables the user to treat conductive or nonconductive films efficiently, without having to run with a dual dielectric. In addition, the system is more compact since there is only one electrode assembly.
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Most of the newer treater station designs usually offer several other features intended to simplify operation and maintenance. These features may be such things as external gap adjustment knobs, pneumatic mechanisms for simplifying web thread up, access for easy cleaning, quick electrode and roll replacement, the use of ceramic dielectrics to reduce pinholing and easy to replace ground brushes.
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Solid state power supplies have proven to be reliable for years, however, they have become more compact recently. In addition, they have increased in frequency, in order to help reduce the required electrode area, enabling the non conductive treater stations to become smaller. They have taken advantage of microprocessors, by becoming capable of being controlled by an external (customer supplied) processor, or can be supplied with their own microprocessor controller. These new microprocessors feature memory for storing common job parameters, watt density control, proportional speed controls and various levels of system diagnostics.