A connection between the production of radial tires for cars and punching cotton pads for facial cleansing is not obvious. After having been introduced to VMI Holland BV the relationship becomes more understandable. The company from Epe has recently launched a completely new machine on the market that for once does not make tires, but processes cotton fleece rollers into ready-to-use cotton pads, wrapped in plastic bags. The first ACE300 is now in operation in Germany.
Therefore the combination of rubber and cotton is less strange than it seemed, especially if one knows that VMI took over the activities of EBM Techniek in 2009 and integrated these activities into the EBM Product Handling Systems product group. VMI Holland B.V., founded in 1945, developed from a repair and construction workshop into a global player for the production of mill room equipment and machines for the production of radial tires for passenger cars and trucks, buses and off-the-roads. EBM Techniek brought in expertise about manufacturing and integrating automated handling systems in the production and packaging process in the food and non-food industry.
The synergy of this technical know-how led to the development of the ACE300, a machine that standalone, fully automatically and very fast - 210 strokes/min – cuts, punches and packs cotton pads (40-120 pads per bag, up to 50 bags per minute). Seven servo axes, controlled via two virtual movements, perform the right movements with great precision.
The challenge was to design a compact machine that carries out the whole process from semi-finished product to packed end product smoothly and quickly. The cotton pads are punched at a speed of more than three hubs per second, collected in a shaft and then pushed in a plastic bag that was blown open. After that the bags are moved into the direction of the packing machine.