Toray Industries, Inc.

Toray Plastics (america), Inc.

Jeffrey Stephen L'Heureux

Joshua R Cloutier

Takashi Ichinomiya

Naohiro Takashima

Nobuhiro Naito

Will E Nunn

A nip roller includes a core material having a surface coated with rubber. The nip roller having a support length Lof 5 m or longer. The rubber surface has a hardness H (deg) equal to or lower than 65 deg as measured by a JIS K6253 Type A durometer (A type). Mass W (kg) of the nip roller and second moment of area I(m) and the Young's modulus E(Pa) of the core material satisfy EI/W&#x2265;80000.

Nip roller and method of manufacturing film roll body

Methods and apparatuses for masking the edges of a substrate when performing direct or reverse gravure coating using a kiss-coat configuration, particularly useful for in-line coating of biaxially oriented polymeric films. The methods and apparatuses include a masking plate configured to prevent the edge of a portion of a substrate from contacting a gravure roll, the masking plate includes a top portion having a Rockwell B hardness equal to or greater than 80, and a thickness of between 0.03125 inches and 0.375 inches. This masking plate prevents build-up of coating on the edges of the substrate which otherwise can cause film orientation production instabilities such as film breaks, sticking to tenter clips, and/or edge trim recycling incompatibilities. The masking plate provides a masking method that is effective and durable, minimizing production downtime and maintenance.

Gravure roll edge masking system for in-line film coating

Growing community of inventors

North Kingstown, RI, United States of America

Jeffrey Stephen L'Heureux