Timothy Walker has this to say about Optimation Technology's pilot lab facility: “There are no equivalent options that combine equipment, human, and IP [intellectual property] resources for web handling development work.” Sure, you'd expect to hear such boastful praise from a company executive. But Walker (PFFC's “Web Lines” columnist) is CEO of TJWalker+Assoc. As a nationally recognized leader in web handling, consulting, and training, he knows a good thing when he sees it.

“A small number of large corporations have a strong effort in web handling development with their own equipment/human/IP resources, but these are all locked away for ‘internal use only,'” says Walker. “Optimation's purchase of Kodak's web handling resource swings open the door to an amazing array of solutions to web handling challenges. Now everyone can see the wizard!”

Located in Eastman Industrial Park in Rochester, NY, the Media Conveyance Facility (MCF) was purchased by Optimation last winter and is used to research and develop process improvements, test OEM equipment performance, and evaluate web-produced products.

Peter Sherer, manager of Optimation's Mechanical and Process Systems group, says the facility has been utilized by small and large converters of finished films. More than 20 companies have reaped the technological benefits of the 8,000-sq-ft facility (including several notable Fortune 100 companies) because it allows them to test product under actual production conditions without having to tie up their own high-volume machines.

Sherer says, “Anybody that mass-produces product in roll-to-roll form could possibly benefit from the facility. Those folks could come in, work with our consultants, run their products, and look at either product-specific problems or even new products and process improvements.

“Also, we work with OEM equipment suppliers who provide hardware to the converting industry. These OEM suppliers want some quantitative or qualitative analysis performed to demonstrate how their equipment behaves.”

Narrow & Wide Web Pilot Equipment

Optimation's MCF facility utilizes a variety of winding and conveyance machine platforms. The facility also has access, through a special collaboration with Eastman Kodak, to several Kodak extrusion and coating pilot machines.

The MCF's four largest pieces of equipment are a 57-in. “combined wide machine,” used in film and paper winding experiments, that runs up to 3,000 fpm; a “thin web rewinder” for low tension, low traction experiments on ultra-thin webs with a maximum web width of 55 in. and a line speed of 2,000 fpm; a 14-in.-wide laminator used for combining and peeling different combinations of webs; and a narrow-width rewinder that has an environmental chamber for studies at controlled temperature and humidity conditions.