Repositioning of coating production

Diversified application fields bring success to coating companies

Founded in the mid-1950s, Rayven was a pioneer in the processing of pressure-sensitive labels and initially marketed ordinary metal-pressure sensitive Mylar(R) labels to local screen printing and letterpress printers.

Within a few years, Rayven launched its flagship product. ReproFilm, a self-adhesive film that can be used on a variety of photocopiers, transfers repetitive images to architectural or mechanical drawings. 80% of Rayven's sales revenue once came from ReproFilm and occupied the leading position of production in the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. The products can be described as marketing the global copy market.

As computers and CAD systems began to replace hand-painted drafts in large areas, hand-painted status was at stake. "If many companies exist only to produce a product, then when that product is gone, the company will disappear," said Rayven's current president, Joe Heinemann. "We don't want to be such a company. We want to continue." Stay in the market."

Diversification succeeds

Today, about 40% of Rayven's products are silicone coated and other release liners; 30% are pressure sensitive films, aluminum foil and paper; and 30% are imaging media. ReproFilm is still on sale - the product is popular in Europe - but it now only accounts for about 15% of sales.

Rayven's range of raw materials has also expanded. There used to be only two types of Mylar (a type of polyester polymer), but common materials currently used for coating include biaxially oriented polypropylene films, high/low density polyethylene, paper, and polystyrene.

Company President Heinemann said: “The challenge we encountered in the past decade was to reposition the company,” Heinemann said. “But it does not need to completely change its face, consolidate existing areas, and expand into other areas. We have 6 groups of people. They belong to different fields. The same applies to our coating machines - they have different functions and flexibility and can quickly adapt to short- to medium-term production."

Rayven can only handle thousands of square feet of material before turning to a completely different field. "That is our niche market, our advantage," Heinemann said.

According to Rick Mercado, director of sales and marketing, customer capabilities are another factor in the successful transformation of Rayven. Everything the company does now is tailor-made for customers to meet their specific needs, including many private label sealing products, depending on the product (or where the distributor is located), The international sales trend of Rayven products will fluctuate. Last year, the proportion of ReproFilm exports to Europe only accounted for about 5%, but this year's total exports will account for 15% to 20%.

Wider, faster, more flexible

With the installation of Rayven's fifth coating line last spring, it will be easier to achieve the desired goals. The 72-inch-wide patented system, designed to run at speeds up to 800 feet per minute, provides enough width and speed to allow Rayven to produce larger-format UV-cured, silicone release liners at lower cost.

Rayven chose GE Silicones as its main supplier of UV chemicals. GE has an unmatched technical support team. They provided Rayven with professional support during the start-up phase of the new UV coating line. “The professional release liner market, especially the film, has grown very well and will continue to grow rapidly,” Heinemann said.

Flexible packaging manufacturers are important to Rayven, both now and in the future. “We provide millions of thin release liners to produce sticky strips on plastic bags.” This application is unmatched in the industry because Rayven's packaging customers want the adhesive strips to be customized and pre-assigned by them. Cut it well.

Rayven has long occupied a leading position in the pressure sensitive film field, but last year, Rayven also began to see new business opportunities from several new conversion sticky products. Professional label manufacturers, die-cutting and screen-printers are the first targets for market development. Sticking printed metal signs onto a multi-disc CD case is a great place to apply adhesive conversion products. The automotive speedometer is another area where applications convert sticky products. “The screen-printed rate meter has actually stuck to a fixed position,” Mercado explained. “The application changes the stickiness to one side and the peel-off to the other side.”

End product introduction

Entrada Fine Art is a 100% double-sided rag fiber paper for inkjet printing of high-end equipment supplied worldwide by Moab Paper, Utah. Entrada comes in a variety of different sizes, as well as bright white and natural colors.

Rayven purchased 185, 225, and 290 grams of 52-inch wide raw material from a supplier on the East Coast. Because the patented low solids inkjet coating line produced a 10-mils thick wet coating, the line speed had to drop below 100 feet per minute.

Faustel's dual Meyer rods are used to coat both sides of paper on Rayven's 56-inch line. This line is equipped with 9 million BTU Black Clawson ovens and stackers to make production changes easier. The coating head is also improved by another inspection system to handle the unique ink jet coating rheology.

After rewinding, the finished product is cut into various sizes ranging from 4x6 inches to 35x47 inches by a 61-inch Beck cutter. The finished product is then packaged in a Moab-designed packaging box, 25 to 50 sheets in one box.

Rayven's newest production line in Minnesota, USA — a 72-inch patented coater — produces UV-cured silicone release liners. The device is designed to handle a variety of weights of film and paper, including 48-gauge films; supporting polyester, PP, BOPP, PE, polystyrene, monochromatic, and resin coated paper.

Control Assemblies provides a computer system and a central operating console for this production line, which can be programmed for Mitsubishi PLC and AC/vector drives. The various materials were first coated with Egan Davis's standard three-roll offset/photogravure coater and then on-line monochromatographic flexographic printing was performed using Wolverine Flexographic Mfg. equipment. The temperature-sensitive substrate is dried by a dual system that includes UVTechnology's overlapping UV lamps and UV Process Supply's long UV lamps. The flexographic printing drying process was done by an IR Systems air/IR dryer.

Other parts of the new line include the Enercon Industries double-sided crown processor on a roll-out drum and Fife's CDP-01 roll guide.

Rayven will regularly upgrade two old silicone coaters and two coater/laminators in order to maintain accuracy and effectiveness. These parts now support MAGPOWR Digitrac or Cygnus roller tension controllers. Rayven used a Spectro Analytical Instruments X-ray coating thickness inspection system to refurbish a 60-inch thermal silicone coating machine to produce products for the pharmaceutical market.

Source of information: packagingdigest china