Back to Basics
September 2003
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An update on cores, shafts, and chucks technology.
CORES, SHAFTS, AND chucks can easily be compared to "all the little people" of the film industry. From light technicians to make-up artists to set designers, the work of the people behind the scenes makes a big impact on a movie's turnout. Likewise, despite the seemingly harmlessness of cores, shafts, and chucks, their performance is very important to the outcome of every print job.
Core knowledge
Cores provide the backbones for many substrates and tapes. While there may appear not to be much difference between company offerings, there are.
Double E. Co. (West Bridgewater, Mass.) offers its Dura-Light® fiberglass composite cores. Lightweight and strong, Dura-Light cores can be reused indefinitely. They withstand high tension and won't crush, nor will they tear out regardless of torque magnitude. Dura-Light cores are available in diameters up to 48˝ and in lengths up to 32´.
Sonoco (Hartsville, S.C.) produces cores made of fiber, plastic, and composite materials, and are designed to meet customer needs in a wide range of markets, including the film market. Its high-performance film cores series, The Millennium Series™, is designed with a range of surface qualities and characteristics engineered to minimize surface markings, and improve winding and unwinding. Sonoco takes note that for many types of films and foils, there is a strong correlation between the surface of the core and the amount of scrap generated.
Bayland, Inc. & Southwest Quality, Inc. (Manvel, Texas) have a variety of extruded cores to offer in any diameter, from 1/2˝ through 6˝. Their featured material for precision film cores is high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), but their cores also come in HDPE, PP, polycarbonate, ABS, and engineering-grade resins.
The dish on shafts
Unlike the heavy shafts of the past, today's offerings are designed with press operators in mind. "A persistent need among our customers is to reduce the weight of air shafts to address operator safety, reduce the number of lawsuits, address the needs of women in the workplace, and as a means to decrease changeover time," said Courtney Donaldson, director of marketing at Goldenrod Corp. (Prospect, Conn.).
Goldenrod offers one of the lightest 3-inch air shafts on the market. The Goldenrod 1260-LF weighs less than 0.25 lbs. per inch assembled, meaning even a 60-inch body shaft weighs under 20 lbs. The external multiple bladder shaft is easy to maintain and takes but minutes to change, thanks to its unique design: all the bladders are accessible from the outside of the shafts. The 1260-LF also has removable leaf expanders that will not distort thin-walled cores.
CORES, SHAFTS, AND chucks can easily be compared to "all the little people" of the film industry. From light technicians to make-up artists to set designers, the work of the people behind the scenes makes a big impact on a movie's turnout. Likewise, despite the seemingly harmlessness of cores, shafts, and chucks, their performance is very important to the outcome of every print job.
Core knowledge
Cores provide the backbones for many substrates and tapes. While there may appear not to be much difference between company offerings, there are.
Double E. Co. (West Bridgewater, Mass.) offers its Dura-Light® fiberglass composite cores. Lightweight and strong, Dura-Light cores can be reused indefinitely. They withstand high tension and won't crush, nor will they tear out regardless of torque magnitude. Dura-Light cores are available in diameters up to 48˝ and in lengths up to 32´.
Sonoco (Hartsville, S.C.) produces cores made of fiber, plastic, and composite materials, and are designed to meet customer needs in a wide range of markets, including the film market. Its high-performance film cores series, The Millennium Series™, is designed with a range of surface qualities and characteristics engineered to minimize surface markings, and improve winding and unwinding. Sonoco takes note that for many types of films and foils, there is a strong correlation between the surface of the core and the amount of scrap generated.
Bayland, Inc. & Southwest Quality, Inc. (Manvel, Texas) have a variety of extruded cores to offer in any diameter, from 1/2˝ through 6˝. Their featured material for precision film cores is high-impact polystyrene (HIPS), but their cores also come in HDPE, PP, polycarbonate, ABS, and engineering-grade resins.
The dish on shafts
Unlike the heavy shafts of the past, today's offerings are designed with press operators in mind. "A persistent need among our customers is to reduce the weight of air shafts to address operator safety, reduce the number of lawsuits, address the needs of women in the workplace, and as a means to decrease changeover time," said Courtney Donaldson, director of marketing at Goldenrod Corp. (Prospect, Conn.).
Goldenrod offers one of the lightest 3-inch air shafts on the market. The Goldenrod 1260-LF weighs less than 0.25 lbs. per inch assembled, meaning even a 60-inch body shaft weighs under 20 lbs. The external multiple bladder shaft is easy to maintain and takes but minutes to change, thanks to its unique design: all the bladders are accessible from the outside of the shafts. The 1260-LF also has removable leaf expanders that will not distort thin-walled cores.
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