They asked for a table; I designed a family

The problem is not a table; it is a splice

When you see a brief only as "a 300 mm table", the solution ends with that table.

When you see it as "making a perfect splice", other cases immediately emerge where the same operation takes place under different conditions:

• Much narrower webs, such as an individual 54 mm ticket, where the joint has to withstand a different kind of load.
• The parent roll, wide and heavy, where taking the web to a table makes no sense: the table has to come to the web.

The principle is the same in all three cases—overlap, square, clamp, cut both lengths together, butt-join with tape on both sides—but each format calls for its own solution.

So I designed three.

M: the table that was built

This is the one that was built and has been working for years.

An aluminium table for webs under 300 mm wide, with a side stop for squaring, pressure bars with quick-release clamps and high-density pads, and a hardened, removable, reversible cutting guide, with a groove on each face so it can be turned over when it wears out.

In five years, it has not yet needed turning over.

S: the compact version for narrow webs

For an individual 54 mm ticket, a 300 mm table is excessive. The S is a compact tool with pivoting pieces that clamp the web and a cutting strip with two paths: a straight one at 90° and an angled one at 60°.

There is a reason for the angled cut. On such a narrow web, a straight cut leaves a very short joint. Cutting at an angle makes the joint line longer, increasing the area of tape gripping both lengths. In formats subsequently used in machines that pull from the roll, such as vending machines, that means a joint that withstands the pull better.

L: the one that attaches to the parent roll

The L starts with another question: what if the web cannot come to the table?

At the parent roll, the operator would have to hold the table in mid-air while splicing. So the L has a clamp that adjusts to the roll width and holds it in place on the roll. The operator has both hands free.

From there, the whole design follows the same direction: nothing should need holding by hand.

• It has guides for the tape, so pulling from the roll brings the tape into position by itself.
• It has V-shaped recesses beside the cutting area. After cutting, instead of lifting the ends by hand, they are placed in these recesses: the material is retained in an arch, leaving the joint area clear while the tape is laid out.
• The ends are then released, laid onto the tape, the tape is brought back over the top, and the excess is trimmed.

It is the same operation as on the M, but designed to take place on the roll itself, without a third hand.

What was built and what was not

This needs to be clear: the M is the only one that was built. The S and L have been designed, modelled and worked through, but have not been built or tested. Nobody asked me for them; I developed them on my own initiative because the problem was there.

And I think that also says something about how I work.

Why I do it

Whenever I solve a brief, I ask how to turn it into a product, and how to turn that product into a range.

It is not about selling more. It is because a well-understood problem rarely occurs just once. If someone needs perfect splices on a 300 mm roll, someone on another line has a 54 mm web, and someone else has a parent roll that will not fit on any table. Once you have solved the principle, adapting it to each case is much faster than starting from scratch.

There are advantages for the customer too. When another similar need arises, the solution has already been thought through. And if they ever need the S or L, there is no design work left: it just needs building.

The takeaway

When you solve a problem, before closing the project, ask yourself:

1. What is the underlying problem, rather than the specific brief?
2. In what other formats, sizes or situations does it occur?
3. What changes in each case? The load, the space, how it is held, who uses it.
4. What stays the same? That is the principle, and what makes the range a family rather than three unrelated inventions.

One solution answers a brief. A family of solutions addresses the problem.

At 7Axis Industrial, we go beyond the brief. We understand the problem and design the solution for each situation in which it occurs.

View the full project → Production tooling →