No machine cuts better

Compact

Challenge

Companies investing in a tobacco cutter today require investment security, flexibility, top cutting quality and stable production processes.

Solution

The KT 4 is the new premium model from Hauni. It offers:

• maximum flexibility for use with leaf, stem and recon,
• significantly optimized cutting quality, resulting in up to 80% fewer knock-outs and 25% less dust,
• measurably higher output due to a 30% reduction in the time required for cleaning, maintenance and conversions.

It has been 25 years since Hauni launched its global success story – the KT 2 tobacco cutter. Since then, customers have purchased more than 500 units of the market-leading tobacco cutters. The new KT 4 premium cutter incorporates a drive system based on Siemens technology and is far more than a logical development of its successful predecessor – in rapidly changing markets, its many technological innovations also represent an investment in the future.

Fit for changing needs

The future, for most companies in the tobacco  industry, is a place where innovations are already creating new challenges for tobacco cutters – challenges that will only increase over the coming years. “All manufacturers are significantly increasing the proportion of recon they use, especially with the new Tobacco Heating Products,” explains Olaf Böse, Senior Manager R&D at Hauni. “For the cutting unit, this presents a completely different challenge than when using traditional materials. As a result, knives become duller more quickly and cut quality is lower. There is also greater loss of tobacco and more stops in production.”

With its newly developed cutting unit and modified grinding principle, the KT 4 is perfectly  adapted to cope with increases in recon processing and scores highly in daily production with sharper knives and a much higher quality product than can be produced with the standard model.

Flexible high-end solution

Leaf or stem? Until now, this was the all-important question when purchasing a tobacco cutter. The KT 4 consigns such considerations to the history books and offers Primary operators a new dimen-sion in flexibility: “The optimized design makes the KT 4 a real all-rounder. It can be used for both leaf or stem,” says Olaf Böse. “Our new cutter reduces changeover times by approx. 30 percent. This not only significantly increases flexibility – especially in smaller production environments – it also offers a high level of investment security as the machine can respond rapidly to changing production needs at any time.”

The knives of the KT 4 reliably cut an extremely  wide range of different tobacco types to the  highest quality standards – from whole leaf to sensitive semi-oriental or up to 100 percent recon. To achieve this, Hauni engineers replaced the  mechanical knife advance of the KT 2 with a motor – so the knife advance can be controlled with the same degree of flexibility as the movement cycles of the grinding wheel. The drum speed can also be changed digitally. “This allows customers to tailor their machine precisely to the specific requirements of individual materials and sharpen the knives according to their level of wear,” explains Böse. “Depending on the type of tobacco, the blades in the KT 4 can last up to ten times a longer than in the standard model. Knife replacement is not only less frequently required, it’s also considerably faster. The KT 4’s grinding wheel can be replaced in just a few minutes without interrupting production.”

New benchmark in quality

Regardless of the field of application, the KT 4 impresses customers, setting a new benchmark in cutting quality. Quality often used to be a problem, especially with fine cuts, but the KT 4’s sharper blades and new grinding mechanism mark a major leap forward in this area. The KT 4 also takes the adjustment of settings, which were previously dependent on the individual skills of the operator, to a new level. Customization of blend parameters to achieve the best possible results at all times is just the beginning. “Operators can save the optimal parameters in the system and later select them for a recipe at the touch of a button,” explains Böse.

“The newly developed compacting infeed conveyor and innovative closing mechanism, which ensures that the gap between the knife drum and the bottom knife is always the same, further costribute to  ensuring the new level of quality that our customers achieve with the KT 4.”