24.1 Metallizers

If one looks back at metallizers of ten or twenty years ago and then at the current design of metallizers, it is possible to extrapolate the progress and hence it is possible to get a rough idea of what specifications might be needed in the future.

Typically, the winding speeds have increased and are currently around 1000 m/min. Hence in the future, they are likely to need to be quicker. Looking at similar industries, papermaking used to be at 1000 m/min several years ago and they have now progressed to over 2000 m/min. It may be that there is some technology or learning already done in the paper industry that would shortcut some problems and make the 2000 m/min metallizer available sooner rather than later. If the winding speeds are increasing, so too are the roll lengths. This allows the proportion of machine uptime to downtime to remain constant as the winding speed increases, further gaining an increase in productivity (Fig. 24.1).

Figure 24.1: An indication of some system trends.

Similarly, the width of metallizers has increased and recently 3.5 m and 4 m wide machines were sold. The polymer web manufacturers have gone for the economies of scale and are now up to at least 8 m width on PET film and 10 m wide on OPP film. I would expect that there is a case for producing metallizers that will accept full width film rolls, hence a threefold increase in width.

Another trend has been the...