Tension could be described as the strain put on a web of material that lengthens or stretches it in a certain direction. This can be measured in ounces, grams, pounds or kilograms.

This is a niche topic area that many business owners would never have opened their eyes to,  but you would be surprised at how relevant it could be for your company. When you’re running a manufacturing business, it is important to know as much as possible about the industry you are entering. Even if this is out of your comfort zone; stay tuned because you might just learn something new and interesting along the way. Here’s everything you need to know about tension control.

Calculating Tension

You can calculate tension yourself by dividing torque by radius. Therefore, as a roll diameter increases or decreases torque has to be changes to keep the tension at its optimal point. This is ultimately how tension is controlled. You can buy tension load cells, which measure web tension. This could come in very useful if your business deals directly web tension measurement processes, such as printing and lamination.

More About Tension Control

Tension control is all about maintaining a certain amount of strain on a specific material between two points. This allows the material to hold onto certain properties such as shape, form and quality. If you’re in a business whereby you need to make sure that your material gets from one place to another seamlessly, then it’s likely that you will need to know about tension control.

You may think that you are already successful at this process, but it could be a lot slower than it needs to be. Think about the current application you’re using; you could double the speed, increase productivity and keep the high quality of your end product. This is where automation comes in because it creates a continuous process to give you excellent and consistent results.

The Advantages

If you don’t use tension control when your business requires it, you can experience several negative results such as, poor print quality, wrinkles and creases, inconsistent coating thickness and material curl during lamination. These are just a few of the knock on effects you may experience if you choose to bypass web tension control.

Overall, if you implement it properly, tension control will lead to an increase in productivity. This will then give you higher profit margins as a result. A lack of tension control will negatively impact your manufacturing processes, as you will not be able to run your materials in an effective and optimal way. If you’re not sure how this relates to your business, you may want to imagine producing a lot of wastage and scrap due to ineffective processes. This will cost your business a lot of money in the long run, when you could be operating in a more consistent matter. If you think this could be beneficial to your business, seek out further advice and you will soon see how you can automate your processes for a more streamlined production line.