Paper & Print Machine Retrofit

The brief. In paper and print, productivity is the problem — and for a printing / converting operation  the bottleneck was the control system, not the machine. The press ran obsolete drives and an ageing tension controller; web breaks and register drift were creeping up, spares were unobtainable, and the operator interface gave little insight into what the line was doing. One drive failure could idle the machine indefinitely.

What we did. Automation Republic retrofitted the machine's electrical and control system while preserving its proven mechanics. We replaced the obsolete drives and re-engineered unwind, pull and rewind as coordinated, closed-loop axes, with tension held under servo/VSD control for stable running from full roll to core. A new PLC and recipe HMI give the operator direct control of speed, tension set-points and register, with stored recipes per substrate and job. Every fault is now named and logged rather than guessed at, and the new panel was built, wired and tested in our in-house shop to current standards.

The platform. We built on a B&R motion and control core — ACOPOS servo and X20 I/O over POWERLINK — for precise, coordinated web handling, with VEICHI drives available where a cost-optimised VSD solution fits the duty. The architecture is vendor-flexible: Siemens or Rockwell can anchor the retrofit to suit an existing installed base.

The result. The machine returned to stable, high-quality production — fewer web breaks, tighter register, and consistent tension across the roll — on a modern, supportable platform with spares secured. The customer owns the as-built drawings, PLC and HMI code, and operator training; support is backed locally and by VPN remote diagnostics for fast tuning without a site visit.

Fighting web breaks or obsolete drives on a paper or print line? Talk to Automation Republic — +27 11 794 9684 · www.automation-republic.com.