Improved film quality with MDO soft drive upgrade

MDO soft drives for existing lines

Soft drives for the Machine Direction Orienter (MDO) are nowadays standard in new Brückner film stretching lines. For quite a while, Brückner Servtec installs them also in existing lines in order to improve the film quality and productivity. This kind of upgrade was recently done very successfully at a BOPP line. Within this project, the Integrated Process Control System was also upgraded to increase the line’s availability.   

Benefits of soft drives

In the MDO are all rolls linked by the film. Any small speed difference can create high forces which can result in scratches on the film. The solution for older lines are soft drives which replace the stiff and inflexible belt / pulley drive with directly shaft mounted motors. This allows easy tension setting in the pre-heating zone, flexible tension distribution along the pre-heating rolls and scratch free pre-heating in the MDO. Furthermore, since there are no belts and gear boxes anymore, maintenance costs will be reduced due to less wear parts.  

Soft drives are adjustable to various film types and proved its worth at numerous upgrades.