Petits lots, commandes variées et continues ? Un équipement de découpe flexible est la clé pour réussir.

"Small batches, multiple varieties" has become the norm in the current manufacturing industry, especially in many industries such as textiles, packaging, composite materials, and lithium batteries. This trend poses a huge challenge to the traditional production model, and flexible slitting equipment is the key to meeting this challenge and achieving a breakthrough.

Let's break down why this trend is happening and how flexible slitting equipment is at the heart of the solution.

1. Why has "small batch, multi-variety" orders become a trend?

1. Fragmentation of market demand: Consumer preferences are becoming increasingly personalized and diversified, and brands need to continuously launch new products and limited edition models to attract customers, resulting in a shortened life cycle of a single product and a smaller order volume.

2. Reduce inventory risks: Mass production can easily lead to inventory backlogs, occupying a large amount of capital and storage space. The "small batch, multiple batch" production model helps enterprises achieve "on-demand production" and significantly reduces inventory costs and risks.

3. Supply chain agility requirements: The market changes rapidly, requiring businesses to respond quickly. Small-volume orders allow businesses to adjust their production schedules more flexibly and adapt to market fluctuations.

4. New product trial and error and iteration: Brands tend to place small orders first to test the market response, and then add them when the effect is good, reducing the losses caused by the failure of new products.

2. Pain points of traditional slitting equipment

In the face of these trends, traditional semi-automatic or rigid automated slitting equipment is not enough:

• Inefficient order change: Every time the product specifications (such as width, diameter, material) are changed, it is necessary to stop for a long time, and the preparation time is too long to manually adjust the tools, sleeves, parameters, etc.

• High dependence on operators: The adjustment accuracy relies heavily on the experience of the master, making it difficult to ensure consistency after each order change, and product quality fluctuates greatly.

• Low degree of automation: From feeding, slitting to unloading, many links require manual participation, which is not only inefficient, but also has potential safety hazards.

• Difficulty in data management: Production process data is difficult to record and trace, which is not conducive to quality analysis and production optimization.

• Low overall efficiency (OEE): The long mold change time seriously reduces the comprehensive utilization rate of equipment, and the efficiency of seemingly efficient equipment is greatly reduced in actual production.

3. How does flexible slitting equipment become the "key to breaking the game"?

Flexible slitting equipment accurately solves the above pain points through high automation, digitalization and intelligence:

1. Extremely fast order change, greatly reducing the preparation time

◦ Core function: automatic tool adjustment system controlled by servo motor. Operators only need to enter new specification parameters (such as width, quantity) on the HMI HMI, and all tool holders can be automatically and accurately moved to the predetermined position within tens of seconds.

◦ Value: The order change time is shortened from the traditional 30 minutes or even hours to less than 5 minutes, truly realizing "one-click order change" and meeting the needs of frequent line changes.

2. Improve accuracy and consistency to ensure product quality

◦ Core function: high-precision servo drive and motion control system to ensure that the width error of each slitting line is controlled within a very small range (e.g., ±0.1mm). At the same time, it integrates online inspection (such as CCD vision, ultrasound) system to monitor the slitting quality in real time and automatically correct deviations.

◦ Value: Reduces the dependence on manual experience, ensures high consistency and excellent quality of different batches of products, and reduces scrap rates.

3. Highly integrated automation, reducing manual intervention

◦ Core function: It can automate the whole process, including automatic feeding (A-frame, lifting car), automatic slitting, automatic labeling, automatic unloading (manipulator, winding machine) and even automatic packaging. The primary role of an operator shifts to monitoring and exception handling.

◦ Value: Significantly reduce labor intensity and labor costs, while improving production safety and overall efficiency.

4. Digitalization and intelligence empower production management

◦ Core function: Equipped with MES (Manufacturing Execution System) interface, it can collect production data (such as speed, output, downtime, scrap rate, etc.) in real time, and generate reports and traceability information. Support recipe management, can quickly recall historical production parameters.

◦ Value: It realizes the transparency and data of the production process, provides decision-making support for managers, facilitates efficiency analysis and continuous improvement, and is the foundation for moving towards an "Industry 4.0" smart factory.

4. The long-term value of investing in flexible slitting equipment

Although the initial investment of flexible slitting equipment is higher than that of traditional equipment, the comprehensive benefits it brings are huge:

• Increased production capacity: Through extremely fast order change, the effective production time is greatly increased, and the overall production capacity is significantly improved.

• Reduced comprehensive costs: saved labor costs, reduced material waste (high-precision slitting), and reduced inventory costs.

• Enhance market competitiveness: Quickly respond to customers' personalized and urgent order needs, winning market reputation and more order opportunities.

• Future Adaptability: The ability to easily respond to more uncertain market changes in the future is a strategic investment for enterprises.

conclusion

In the face of the new normal of "small batches and multiple varieties" orders, enterprises must reshape their competitiveness through technological upgrades. Flexible slitting equipment is no longer an "option", but a must-have for survival and development. It solves the biggest bottleneck in the production process - line change efficiency through automated and intelligent means, enabling enterprises to achieve small-batch customized production with the efficiency and cost of large-scale production, and finally stand out in the fierce market competition.

If you are considering equipment upgrades, it is recommended to choose a flexible slitting equipment supplier with mature technology and guaranteed service based on your specific material type, order characteristics, budget, and future plans.