Web Guides

There are converting operations that require alignment of the web material to the centerline of the converting machine. In this case, you will usually find a two sensor setup for this type of guiding. This application is referred to as center guiding.

In 2020 we hosted a webinar on web guiding applications and advanced web guiding concepts as a continuation of the educational series web guiding fundamentals. This webinar was the follow up on our seminar on Web Guiding Fundamentals, presented earlier that year, and commented in a series of blog posts in 2021. We would like to share some comments on the points presented in this webinar in the form of a series of blogs.

Another Option in Contrast Guiding when there is no Feature that could Mimic a Line.

In a previous post on contrast guiding we discussed using the negative space between straight edged labels as an intermittent linethat can be tracked by our sensor/camera and control system for web guiding applications. However, our system allows for other ways of using a contrast application that do not require a negative space that has characteristics of a line for the purpose of tracking.

A Very Special Option for Contrast Guiding and Monitoring

Contrast sensing allows for a variety of applications to guide or monitor your web. These applications help you eliminate the need for a printed line. Eliminating the printed line saves the cost of ink to print the line and the web material where the line would be printed. 

A contrast is any visible printed, embossed or laminated feature on a web. Most of the time, a visible feature is understood to be visible with the naked eye. However, it can include UV printed features that are not visible to the naked eye, but are detectable for a UV type of sensor or camera.

Line guiding is one of the subsets of contrast sensing applications.

It requires the printing of a line on a web. It's purpose is to provide a feature that a sensor can track to determine the web position. The typical use is in web converting where guiding on the edge might not be a precise parameter in printing labels. However, printing a line is an additional cost. After all, it is additional ink. If the line is printed outside of the main printed features of the web, it could be leaving money in the converting floor in the form of excess trim on the edges of the web.

So far, we have looked at the web guide mechanism, actuator and sensor. The remaining component of a web guiding system is the web guide controller. 

So far we have discussed the different types of web guiding systems for converting applications. You now should know the different types of web guiding systems, and their design and installation recommendations. Also, you should have an idea of why web guiding is needed and where they should be installed in converting operations. In this blog post we will address a component of a web guiding system, the web guide actuators.