Coating Tech Slot Dies: Recent Episodes
Coating Tech Slot Dies
DOWNLOAD AUDIO FILE In standard proximity coating with slot die equipment requires that a gap is maintained between the slot die lip face and the substrate. In proximity coating, the substrate is supported by a precision backing roll and the narrow gap is set by a feeler gauge. To [...]
DOWNLOAD AUDIO FILE Whether coating batteries or adhesive tapes, there are reasons why coating full width is not always optimal. When an operation lends itself to coating wet and dry lanes down web across a substrate, what is required to understand what is involved? Lane coating is the process [...]
DOWNLOAD AUDIO FILE INTRODUCTION The slot die coating positioner. That’s not even a real word! If you type in the word positioner, the word processing program complains that you didn’t spell positioned correctly. Well, the software developers didn’t work in the coating and converting industry. For those of us [...]
DOWNLOAD AUDIO FILE INTRODUCTION Economies of scale occur when a coated product is manufactured wide, fast and in one pass. Substrates can be manufactured wide and multilayer coating can provided added functionality, but how do you make a coated product faster. The first hurdle is curing (typically the bottleneck [...]
Download Audio File INTRODUCTION Panel coating is a unique application of fluid coating technology that provides capability and functionality to a discrete substrate. But what is important to understand and what tradeoffs exist? Unlike continuous coating application against a moving substrate, we are trying to develop steady state control [...]
Download Audio File INTRODUCTION When it comes to fluid coating onto substrates, the equipment required falls into three areas- Extrusion coating Hot melt coating Liquid coating What makes these three coating methods the same and what makes them different? Extrusion coating is typically non-tacky molten polymers being cast onto [...]
Download Audio File When companies are going through the process of justifying a capital expenditure, people need to understand the full cost of ownership (COO). This is fundamentally a return on investment (ROI) question with a life cycle characteristic. Purchase cost combined with operation, utilization and performance can [...]
Download Audio File Wouldn't life be great if complex things could be reduced to simple functions? In the world of coating, if you look deep enough, you can find some of these useful nuggets. In self-metered coating, the liquid flow can be studied as a collection of bulk flow [...]
Download Audio File Liquids can be described as mayonnaise or beer. The Newtonian fluids are beer - they are self-leveling and if you turn a glass of beer upside down, the beer spills out. The non-Newtonian fluids are mayonnaise - without shear they will not move. Turn the mayonnaise [...]
Download Audio File It's important to pay attention to critical variables in coating. When it comes to slot die setup and operation, the variables can be separated into linear variables and cubic variables. As you can imagine, linear variables affect the coating performance some, but the cubic variables have [...]
Download Audio File All modern products and equipment are getting smarter. There are internal computers tracking automotive mechanics as we drive, there are feedback loops in what we search online and there is the ubiquitous "internet of things." Construction materials are no exception. Glass for residential and [...]
Download Audio File Finite Element Analysis is commonly utilized in understanding, designing and manufacturing pre-metered coating equipment. But the use of FEA is not limited to understanding fluid flow. It can also be utilized to determine the structural strength of the equipment and the temperature effect of a heated [...]
Download Audio File In the world of coating technology, most of the time and energy is spent on coating a moving web to create roll stock of fluid-coated and cured materials. Spending time on this area of the converting market is well placed, but how about those companies interested [...]
Download Audio File As the world of liquid coating has advanced, so has the design and manufacturing of the equipment. In the world of pre-metered coating, slot die technology has progressed rapidly since it's early years because of computer simulation. The ability to take the rheological fluid characteristics and [...]
Download Audio File When coating fluids thinner and thinner, you eventually run into some issues with equipment capability. The coating head can't get much closer to the backing roll without interference or damage to the equipment. So what can you do if the coating still is fluttering or the [...]
Download Audio File In the world of liquid coating, the ability of the liquid to adhere to the substrate is not ideal. The liquid does not want to flow correctly, beading up or generally not behaving well at the interface between the liquid coating and the substrate. In roll-to [...]
Download Audio File Pilot coating lines are available in a number of locations where coated product manufacturers can run experimental trials for new products, new components, and new processes to create new or improve existing products. Whether you've run a pilot trial or not, chances are there are tips [...]
Download Audio File There are a number of industries where clean coating is required - medical, pharmaceutical, optical, printed electronics and energy storage devices to name a few. There are a number of areas that a converting and coating manufacturer needs to concentrate on to develop a clean product. [...]
Download Audio File So what makes medical and pharmaceutical products so special? GMP. GMP stands for Good Manufacturing Practice and is the FDA's approach to insuring that converted products that are used for patient contact have some rigor to the manufacturing procedures. This is important to your facility if [...]
Download Audio File When coating optical films, should the fluid layers be coated and dried or built up via deposition? Optical films cover a wide variety of coated applications in the world today. With the need for better reflection properties in solar panels, transmissive glass with touchscreen conduction capabilities, [...]
Download Audio File To start with, the foils are processed prior to the coating procedure and are typically sprayed with oil. This oil needs to be removed or considered before applying the coating. The surface tension of the substrate will be undermined by the presence of the oil. In [...]
Download Audio File From lithium-ion batteries to capacitors to solar panels, one common feature is they are all produced through a coating method. Energy storage devices describe a wide variety of products. From lithium-ion batteries to capacitors to solar panels, energy storage devices are as diverse as there are [...]
Download Audio File There are a variety of methods for encouraging fluids to stick to substrates in coating applications- corona, plasma or flame treating the substrate; adding a primer prior to coating; and utilizing a vacuum system at the coating head interface. The addition of surfactants is one method [...]
Download Audio File When there are two rolling surfaces moving in the same direction, the fluid needs to decide which surface to follow. But how is this decision made? Film split instabilities are caused in a variety of coatings and with a variety of coating techniques. Most commonly found [...]
Download Audio File Economies of scale occur when a coated product is manufactured wide, fast and in one pass. Substrates can be manufactured wide and multilayer coating can provided added functionality, but how do you make a coated product faster. The first hurdle is curing (typically the bottleneck of [...]
Download Audio File When coating a fluid, consideration of the rubbery behavior needs to be considered with the shear rate versus viscosity data. Coating rubber bands is not easy. So when you look at coating liquids that have molecules already formed, or the fluid has a rubbery nature, care [...]
Download Audio File Adhesives are a coating in the converting world that do not get a lot of respect. However, when you look at the market of adhesive coating, the technology requirements and process expertise can be just as demanding as some higher tech type coatings in the electronics, [...]
Download Audio File When looking for process, product, and profit improvements for your PSA tapes and labels, consider going back to the drawing board. Pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) coating is common for tapes and labels and useful for many market applications. This is a broad area that has many caveats, [...]
Download Audio File Coating equipment can be exposed to a variety of conditions-acidic fluids, corrosive chemicals, and abrasive slurries to name a few. So how do you identify the right material selection for the tooling that will carry the fluid to the substrate for application? While not an exact science, [...]
Download Audio File Coating with a self-metered system is a study of flow dynamics where we are fighting viscous forces. Depending on where the math is being applied, one force rises over another in combination with viscosity. Sometimes you need to be more concerned about elastic forces, sometimes gravity, [...]
Download Audio File Here are a few theories to guide your decision making for achieving the thin coatings needed for filtration. Like with everything else in the coating world, membranes perform better the thinner they are. Thin coatings or castings, in this case, require a level of understanding in fluid [...]
Download Audio File Nonwovens, fabrics, papers and membranes provide unique substrates for fluid coating applications. Depending on the final product needs, the fluid may need to be placed on top of the substrate, penetrate all the way through the substrate or some arrangement of the fluid between these two [...]
Download Audio File The fundamentals of air entrainment, entrapment, and rheology are critical to product success. Water filtration is ubiquitous in our world. Water supplies need technological support to provide the volume necessary for our planet's population. There are five main types of filters that support water purification efforts [...]
Download Audio File When a slot die is coating a fluid, does it care which way it is pointed? No, it does not. So why are different terms utilized when the same piece of equipment is pointing up in the air, down towards the ground, or horizontally towards the [...]
Download Audio File If you are currently coating more than one layer of coating onto a substrate, you may want to consider the option of multi-layer coating. To provide more than one fluid at a time to a substrate, a pre-metered method like slot die coating is required. Slot [...]
Download Audio File Fluid coating is dependent on 5 main factors to have the precision required for today's coated products: the coating head, the positioning system for the coating head, the substrate uniformity, the backing roll tolerance, and the fluid delivery system. The fluid delivery system is a broad [...]
Download Audio File After a fluid is deposited onto a substrate anything can happen. While the fluid is balancing on the substrate and traveling to the curing section of the process, what will the fluid do? In this gap between the coating phenomena and the final cured state, the [...]
Download Audio File In Part 2 of this two-part series on intermittent or patch coating, fluid control and physical movement were investigated. EXPERIMENTAL Water-based anode and NMP-based cathode slurries were utilized with aluminum and copper substrates for coating understanding. These raw materials are typical for lithium-ion battery applications. Rheological [...]
Download Audio File Developing a product in the fluid coating industries requires determination of raw materials to provide for the differentiated features of the product, but equally important is the process development associated with turning these raw materials into an effectively and efficiently produced item. Whether you are looking [...]
Download Audio File ABSTRACT The world has gone patch coating crazy! Batteries, pharmaceuticals, even adhesives. The interest in reducing waste and providing functional coating that can be used right off the coating station is very high. With this increased interest in intermittent coating, we also have to consider the [...]
Download Audio File When it comes to slot die fluid coating, the mathematical equations that dictate flow are fundamental, but the details are complicated. The goal with understanding the math should be not to make things more complicated, but to simplify the understanding and lead engineers and operators towards [...]
Download Audio File With the modern coating era upon us, the need to coat functional materials has grown exponentially. Whether you are looking to coat flexible electronics, solar panels, optical films, or energy storage devices, the need for fluids that provide transmission of energy is important. So how can [...]
Download Audio File Slot die coating technology is a function of the coating process, auxiliary system and fundamental technique. The decision to utilize a coating technology needs to be analyzed against these functions to determine best fit. In the era of clean, thin and precise converting operations, a customized [...]
Download Audio File Fluid coating is a world of science and art. Some things we know well, and some things have yet to be proven, and many things have yet to be investigated. So where do we start? Fluid coating is the process of depositing one or more liquids [...]
Download Audio File When describing fluid flow onto substrates to people not living in the world of converting operations is like trying to explain rocket science to a pig. Very few people ever wonder how the glue on tape is placed, or how plastic sheets focus light on a TV [...]
Download Audio File One of the best ways to not have defects in fluid coating isn't a trick with a pump or a tip with a coating head. Reducing defects works best by practicing preventative medicine. Defect prevention comes from a handful of considerations at the beginning of a [...]
Download Audio File Streak defects are one of the most common coating defects in roll-to-roll coating. They are also very elusive! How streaks are formed and progress is a combination of the development of a particle and the presence of an area where the particle can hang-up in the [...]
Download Audio File Agglomeration is a dispersion issue that can cause headaches for coating operators. Fundamentally, an agglomerate is a collection of particles that stick together and create a larger particle that can get stuck in narrow gaps or cause coating defects. Why is this such an issue? Ideally, people [...]
Download Audio File In premetered coating, a slot die is the control valve that turns fluid flow through a pipe into a precise, flat, and even coating on a continuous substrate. How does a chunk of metal do this? I like to think of a slot die as a [...]
Download Audio File Fluid coating is only as good as the quality team says it is. Once the fluid hits the substrate many things can happen - the substrate can wrinkle, air can be trapped, and curing can do more damage than good. The key is to understand where [...]
Download Audio File Stress is bad. Really bad! And I'm not talking about in your personal life. I'm talking about stress-induced defects in fluid coating. Where does stress come from? What can it do to a perfectly good coating? How do you get rid of it? Now there is [...]
Download Audio File 1. Evolution: Liquid coating has come a long way from painting by hand to coating with rolls to pre-metering fluid. The future of fluid coating is housed in the pre-metered enclosure presented by slot die technology. The ability to feed, distribute, and apply a liquid directly [...]
Download Audio File I am not a curing expert. Now that we have that out of the way, I would like to discuss why curing is important. Just like coating technology and web handling, if you don't have at least a rudimentary understanding of curing technologies, you will not [...]
Download Audio File We have seen it numerous times-equipment is mishandled and damaged unnecessarily. While these nicks and dings can add up to expensive maintenance costs, they are avoidable. So what should a maintenance manager do? Taking a slot die as an example, I would like to walk through [...]
Download Audio File Process development is taking a product concept through three stages of development: lab scale pilot scale production scale In the world of fluid coating, the question is not whether you can move between these layers of process development for a given product, but how accurate will [...]
Download Audio File The world has gone patch coating crazy! Batteries, pharmaceuticals, even adhesives. The interest in reducing waste and providing functional coating that can be used right off the coating station is very high. With this increased interest in intermittent coating, we also have to consider the technical [...]
Download Audio File To understand the forces involved in developing a stable coating on a substrate, key features of the coating need to be viewed from the internal perspective of the fluid. Within the world of coating, it is common to have a solid suspended in a liquid - [...]
Download Audio File In the second of this two-part series on hot melt coating, Mark Miller says the newest technology is not always the best, but the best techniques applied to good technology provide the best product outcomes. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUE So how does a modern hot melt coater [...]
Download Audio File The coating and converting industry may not be as sexy as the dot-com world of Silicon Valley, but the fundamentals of getting a business off the ground are still the same. You still have to balance the books; you still have to market a product; the [...]
Download Audio File On many coating projects that I have been involved in, the coating defect that the team was trying to eliminate was apparent on the web, but where the defect originated was not known. This leads the process and product team down different paths of experimentation and [...]
Download Audio File As coating corporations work toward increasing margins, getting more out of the capital at the site, improving turns in inventory, and reducing environmental impact, they are running into the edge of material, expertise, and equipment capability. Hot melt adhesive coating is a great option for traditional [...]
Download Audio File What do you do when you want to have more than one functional layer on a given substrate? Oh yeah, and you want to lay each layer down at the same time… Welcome to simultaneous multilayer coating! A functional technique via slot die coating technology. Let's [...]
Download Audio File Do you sometimes feel like you are free falling through the coating world? A free fall can be a good thing if you are not spinning out of control, but the distance is just right and the free fall is intentional. A good example is the [...]
Download Audio File Rheology again? The science of rheology is critical in so much that goes into fluid coating that we could spend a lifetime discussing the details regarding a particular flow regime and still forget to worry about viscoelastic functions that could screw up the entire system. Since [...]
Download Audio File What?!? Don't you love acronyms? I personally get along with TLAs (three-letter acronyms), but FLAs? It is a bit much. TWOSD, or Tensioned Web Over Slot Die, is a coating technique that has some unique advantages. The concept behind TWOSD is that when a slot die is [...]
Download Audio File It's always good to have a perspective from all areas of a business. In the world of manufacturing, an engineer learns a lot by getting out on the shop floor and turning some knobs. It is also helpful for the manufacturing engineer to have an appreciation [...]
Download Audio File With every call a technical consultant receives regarding a technical inquiry, comes another call asking what the price of equipment is. Whether it is a slot die, backing roll, or fluid delivery system, vendor selection can seem like a daunting task. With years of experience helping [...]
Download Audio File When a fluid hits a substrate, pushing through the barrier of air, the fluid tends to flow predictably. This phenomenon is a function of the interfacial tensions between a fluid, the displaced air, and the substrate being contacted. Whether the fluid wets the surface of the [...]
Download Audio File What does the future hold? If we could gaze into the crystal ball of fluid coating and know what the expectations for liquid coating onto substrates was going to be in years to come, what would the equipment and material scientists be working on today? Luckily, [...]
Download Audio File Let's go back…way back…back to the basis of what fluid coating is and why the converting industry cares about the process of placing a fluid onto a substrate for products around the world. When someone in the coating industry is trying to create, coat, and solidify [...]
Download Audio File Coating specialists love to throw around big ideas and even bigger words (rheology, viscosity, surface tension, etc.). But what is important? What can you use daily as an applications individual in the fluid coating world? So let's start with the most important concept to understand in coating [...]
Download Audio File When you look at the process of fluid coating onto substrates, there are many ancillary pieces of equipment that affect the final coating quality of the product, be it an adhesive tape, optical film, or automotive battery. If we dig back deep enough into the process--beyond [...]
Download Audio File How well can a computer program, mathematical equation, or experience predict fluid coating performance is a question I am asked on a regular basis. As with any good question, the answer is, "It depends." I am an advocate of using predictive devices whenever possible, but the [...]
Download Audio File In many recent discussions in the converting industry, I have found myself trying to explain fluid coating technology to people who are familiar with extrusion technology. The resulting conversation feels like an excerpt from Men are from Mars/Women are from Venus! The control of a turbulent [...]
Download Audio File When coating a fluid onto a substrate, many factors come into play - chemistry of the fluid, surface tension of the substrate, curing conditions, slitting requirements, tension control of the web, etc… All these factors are interactive and require understanding of the limits and boundary conditions [...]
Download Audio File The best starting point for polymer understanding is rheology, or the flow of the polymer in fluid form. What is rheology? ρηεολογψ-It's all Greek to me! Yes it is. But it doesn't need to be. The term rheology comes from the Greek word rheos, which means [...]
Download Audio File Within all coating matters, scientific application of process and material understanding is critical to success. The amount of care applied to understanding each step in the fluid coating process provides a reduction in error to the process overall. Typically process engineers want to attack a coating [...]
Download Audio File I had a great physics professor in college. When I was considering what area of engineering to go into, he explained the world of technology in a simplified model-everything deals with flow. Electrical engineers deal with the flow of electricity through wires; civil engineers deal with [...]
Download Audio File With the advent of car battery technology moving into the mainstream for consumer vehicles, the need for advanced battery technology has skyrocketed. As with any consumer-based technology, the need to have a competitive edge financially is important. To obtain the competitive edge, battery manufacturing companies are [...]
Download Audio File What variables need to be considered when coating a fluid that isn't simple? When coating a simple fluid, slot die coating operators have enough to worry about if the fluid is a chemical or polymer diluted by a solvent. Viscosity curves at various shear rates and [...]
Download Audio File What came first, the chicken or the egg? When determining how to initiate a new product in the marketplace, most converting companies face a similar paradox. Do you build a coating line and invest in the infrastructure designed around a product, or do you contract out [...]
Download Audio File Sometimes there is a complex, multivariable solution to a coating defect and sometimes…well, let me get the issue in front of you first, then we'll discover the solution. When coating a substrate with a fluid, the liquid has two cross-sectional areas of concern: the cross-web uniformity the [...]
Download Audio File Why would you coat with a roller instead of a knife; a rod instead of a slot die? There are many methods for fluid coating and just as many techniques for utilizing the equipment. Outside of space constraints, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have made it possible [...]
Download Audio File One of the most common issues in coating is bubbles. Not solids. Not liquids. Bubbles. Where do bubbles come from, and how can we avoid the defects they create? Well, first of all, the bubbles are air. Air can be introduced in a variety of points [...]
Download Audio File When a fluid is being coated out of a slot die, it can be positioned in a variety of ways. This ability to position the coating head is an inherent capability of the slot die because of the closed system mode of operation. In a typical arrangement, [...]
Download Audio File Typically, when you coat a fluid onto a substrate, the fluid flows to the limits of the coating head and provides a solid layer of fluid over the substrate. Sometimes, however, the fluid resists this reformation and coating defects occur. Pinholes, ribs, and beading-up of the [...]
Download Audio File Recently, a lot has been asked of coating technology. Products in the printed electronic fields, such as solar panels and battery technology, have pushed the limits of traditional roll-to-roll processes. For a production facility to have a technical edge, a coating solution must be robust enough [...]
Download Audio File Whether you work in the battery industry, the packaging industry, or the publishing industry, you have come across these two words: coating and printing. For as different as they are, it is easy to confuse the technologies and the capabilities. Both processes provide an operator the [...]
Download Audio File If you have worked around a coating process facility, you have undoubtedly heard someone refer to the coating process window. This statistical assessment of the capabilities of the equipment as it interacts with the materials is the key to optimizing the money you can make. Whoa! [...]
Download Audio File Every coating process engineer and equipment operator wants to know where to start when a coating problem surfaces with their product. So let's start with the surface of the problem. The main thing to do is properly identify the coating defect you are seeing. This will [...]
Download Audio File Whether you are dealing with a fluid coating or a plastic product, you need to understand rheology. Rheology of the polymer in question affects not only the final product but the settings and limitations of the process. But what is rheology? Stated simply, rheology is the [...]
Download Audio File Let's talk chatter. Not just because it's cold outside, but because it is a common defect in the coating industry. What is chatter? For those who have not dealt with this issue, chatter is a variation in coating that looks like a solid crossweb line at [...]
Download Audio File In the world of coating equipment, the coating station is considered the heart of the beast. For better or worse, when the fluid comes in contact with the substrate, the coating station is where the action is. A manufacturing engineer spends a large chunk of time [...]
Download Audio File Six Sigma is a quality control system utilized for everything from discrete parts to organizational efficiency. The question is: How do you best utilize Six Sigma to reduce web defects? Utilization in the converting industry hinges on applying discrete measures to a continuous product. Applications can [...]