The Effect of Employing an Optimal Web Velocity Profile on Transverse Vibrations in Roll-to-Roll Manufacturing

The quality of web products is significantly affected by the running velocity of a process line, especially during the stages of start up and shutting down of a web processing line. At these stages, a remarkable transverse variation (web flutter) are observed due to employing improper input velocity. Web flutter may cause some web defects such as wrinkles, poor printing and even web breakage. Therefore, employing an optimal web velocity profile is crucial to minimize web transverse vibrations during the transport of web through different processing sections in a web process line. In this paper, an optimal velocity profile along with common velocity profiles (widely used in industry) have been utilized in a running web line to demonstrate the effect of web transport velocity on transverse vibrations. Comparative experimental results are presented and discussed.