Which sort of guidance system should you use?

How should your system be set up for best performance?

This TopWeb modeller helps you to find out.

You can steer your web with a Steering guide or with a Displacement guide. By changing the value of the Steering angle you’ll be able to see how the different systems work. Note that for illustrative purposes the images greatly exaggerate the angles.

The Displacement guide has no need for traction between the web and the rollers and imposes no real shear strain on the web. But it only steers the web downstream of the unit. The Steering guide steers the web upstream and downstream.

The Steering guide must have traction, and also imposes shear strains that can cause slack edges and wrinkles. The calculations shown in the Slip and Wrinkles module are automatically performed for the steering guide, using a 90deg wrap (which is the norm in steering guides). If slip, slack or wrinkles are calculated then warning messages appear.

The steering guide has a Pre-entry span and an Entry span. By changing their values with the sliders you will see which is which. The pre-entry span should be less than the entry span otherwise steering problems can occur.           

The Calculated lateral steer is only an approximation as the real lateral steer is a dynamic response. The steering guide typically gives less steer for a given angle because the web resists the lateral force. The displacement guide gives a full steer of Span x Angle.

Response speeds are important. The position of the Sensor relative to the exit roller is critical (the closer it is the faster) and for the steering guide the Pivot point is also important (the closer to the pre-entry roller, the faster)