Neenah, Wisconsin — These days recycling is “in” … and MillTown Paper is an expert. They salvage good paper out of bad.
They buy damaged paper, mill excess, overruns, side trims, printer or publisher excess inventories, job lots, overruns and field rejects … and make useful products from them.
Rolls of paper that have been water damaged, or have crushed cores or crumpled edges, are out of round, or even those that may have fallen out of a truck — all of these have imperfections which cause the rolls to run with serious vibration.
MillTown can run rolls of any grade of paper or board up to 110 inches wide with cores from three inches to 12 inches internal diameter.
Plant manager Jerry Warning says, “We run a 76-inch two-drum Cameron rewinder that we’ve designated for ‘the worst of the worst’ rolls. For a long time, we had problems with the rolls because the vibrations caused the load cells we were using to break. The beams would break under the stress and we frequently had to replace them.”
MillTown, which employs about 45 workers and uses four rewinders, is a re-seller of paper they have salvaged. They do rewinding and slitting, sheeting, and trimming and take pride in custom converting. They will purchase the materials or contract to convert it for a customer. Although 90 percent of their jobs are for printing and publishing paper, they buy and convert for their customers, they also do contract work for paper merchants, brokers, and paper distributors, says MillTown president Greg Duerr. Their winders have a maximum roll width of 110 inches. They have done jobs as small as one or two rolls, and as large as 12,000 tons total.
Seeing the expense and time loss from broken load cells, MillTown turned to The Montalvo Corporation of Gorham, Maine, international specialists in industrial web control systems for 60 years, for a “fix.
Warning says, “Montalvo came up with a new load cell that has fewer moving parts and we tried them. Not only did it fix the problem, we’ve now run the new load cells for more than two years with no problems, and we now are able to run the damaged rolls four to five times faster than before even with the vibrations and the load cells are no worse for the wear. We have increased production greatly. And we have not had to replace any load cells.”
Montalvo sales representative for MillTown, Patrick Swiekatowski, says the aluminum beams in the load cells frequently broke from the vibration. “The problem was with a traditional cartridge-style load cell that clamps to a dead (stationery) shaft idler roller where the load cell supports the roll.”
President Ed Montalvo had a Montalvo’s U-Series load cell put in place of the old load cell initially as a trial. The U-Series uses a pillow block bearing to help support the roller. “In addition, the U-Series has fewer parts, a stronger beam, is bigger and more robust, is bolted to the machine’s frame, and any vibrations are shared across a larger surface without damaging the sensor,” he says.
The U-Series has a lower profile with a foot print similar to most competitors’ models. It’s mechanics have been simplified, the beam is easily accessible, it is water resistant, is constructed of stainless steel, and comes in four sizes with load ratings ranging from 50 to 22,500 pounds. And it works in a high-vibration environment.
The improvement has been critical for MillTown, which often runs lightweight coated papers (32 lb to 50 lb basis weight) for web-fed printers to use for magazine inserts, catalogs, and other end products. Warning says, “In the two and a half years since we started using Montalvo load cells, we have not had to replace a single one and that has kept our rewinders running.”
The Montalvo Corporation specializes in the analyzing, upgrading and servicing of customer’s web control equipment. For 60 years, Montalvo has manufactured and serviced a wide range of web control products for the converting, paper, foil, nonwovens, and plastic film industries. Montalvo products include brakes, clutches, electronic tension control devices, load cells, indicators, web guiding equipment and safety chucks. Montalvo manufactures in the United States and Denmark, and sells worldwide
- For more information, MillTown Paper Inc. is located at 1286 Ehlers Road, (mailing address is P.O. Box 475) Neenah, Wisconsin, 54956; Phone: 920-722-2112; website: www.milltown.com; info@milltown.com.
- For additional information also contact The Montalvo Corporation at 50 Hutcherson Drive, Gorham, Maine, USA, 04038; telephone 1-800-226-8710 or (207) 856-2501; fax 1-800-644-5097 or (207) 856-2509; www.montalvo.com; e-mail: dan@montalvo.com.