There are several benefits to implementing a LaserSpeed solution to corrugated board lines.

• Dramatic Increase in accuracy of board length
• A huge savings from reduced scrap on product changeovers or any time the line is down
• Decrease maintenance

A somewhat hidden cost in traditional contact measurement systems is due to maintenance. Contact systems wear and have to be re-calibrated. A LaserSpeed solution is non-contact and therefore there are no parts to wear. LaserSpeed is also permanently calibrated
which further reduces maintenance.

To calculate the savings from scrapped tail boards:

• Number of product changeovers = XX per day
• Distance from main sheer to knife = XXX ft
  or m
• Percentage of scrap each tail-out = XX %
• Cost of product (average or actual) = XX $/ft
  or $/m

For this particular study: The distance at this corrugated line was 90 ft from the main board sheer to the board knife. They had 100% scrap
at each tail-out. They performed an average of 25 changeovers a day. The average cost per foot was $0.25 Savings per day = 25 x 90 x 1 x 0.25 = $562.50 per day of savings. That is $16,875 per month or $202,500 per year.

• Accuracy up to 0.02%
• Permanently calibrated
• IP67 rated for industrial environments
• Same outputs as your existing encoder solution
• High speed, precise and repeatable

Precise control of the knives is important as it determines the accuracy of the discrete boards. The biggest issue or waste, however, happens when the
line goes down for any reason. For example, a
product changeover.

When the line goes down for any reason the line performs what is called a "tail-out". A tail-out occurs when the main board is sheered anywhere from 50 feet to 100 feet before the knife (varies from plant to plant). The board at that point is being pulled through the knives by the pull roll that is part of the knife system. The board is accelerating at this point by up to 2 to 3 times the main board line speed. This part of the board run is referred to as the tail. Hence the term tail-out was coined. The problem with the tail-out lies in the fact that the speed of the board tail varies because of slippage and "out of calibration" pull rolls. The configuration of the each of the knife systems varies, but usually they have both a top and bottom knife which requires 2 pull rolls controlling speed.

At some plants the entire tail is scrapped. Figure how long the tail is and how many times the lines goes down a day, the cost of the material and you can easily come up with the amount of loss due to this problem.

The solution to this problem is to provide 2 LaserSpeed systems to measure the actual board speed as it enters the knives. The speed signals from the LaserSpeeds provide the control system with precise pulse counts to control the cutting knives. The LaserSpeeds are mounted just before and as close to the actual knife system as possible to minimize the distance between the LaserSpeed and knife.

The benefit of using the LaserSpeed at this point is that the cuts can be controlled very accurately during normal run or tail-out mode. This accuracy helps eliminate scrap and increases product quality. The scrap, or waste savings, that the LaserSpeed can achieve is determined by the distance between the main board sheer and the knife system, and also the amount of product changeovers that occur during a day and the percentage of scrap on each. Some plants throw away the whole section of board from the tail-out.