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Since 1993, Pepin Manufacturing, Inc. has built its reputation on doing the work that other contract manufacturers won’t. The Lake City, Minnesota company – ISO 13485 certified and FDA registered – specializes in high-precision contract converting and fabrication for the medical, industrial, aerospace, defense, cosmetic, and retail industries. Films, foils, fabrics, adhesives, plastics: Pepin handles them all, slitting and die cutting to customer specification through rotary and flatbed processes. Among their best-known products are electrotherapy electrodes and sensors sold under the Advantrode brand, and a lint roller line that reaches roughly 70% of the commercial dry-cleaning industry in the United States.

In short, Pepin is a company that has earned complexity. When they decided to expand into full-scale slitting and rewinding from master rolls, they needed a machine that could match it.

That machine turned out to be the Catbridge Model 729-32 Duplex Center Surface Slitter Rewinder, paired with a Model 685 Shaftless Floor Pickup Unwind Stand.

From the moment the machine was commissioned, the verdict from Pepin’s team was clear. Steve Yulga, Sales and Marketing Manager at Pepin Manufacturing, put it plainly: “It was one of the best machine commissioning projects I’ve seen.”

The decision to invest in a dedicated slitting and rewinding line was rooted in two goals. First, Pepin wanted to expand its contract converting capabilities and begin offering slitting and rewinding services to outside customers – films, foils, fabrics, PET, plastics, and tapes – opening a new revenue stream beyond their established medical device core. Second, and equally important, the machine would allow Pepin to buy master rolls more efficiently and slit to production widths internally, improving their cost position on existing products.

It is that second benefit that the machine delivered on immediately. Since becoming operational, the 729-32 has run at 75 to 80 percent utilization, primarily supporting internal projects. The outside contract converting business is still ramping, but the internal value was realized right away.

The first outside job tells its own story. A customer came to Pepin with a problem: bubble wrap manufactured with the inflation channel oriented incorrectly, making it unusable for their packaging process. Pepin used the 729-32 to rewind the entire inventory – more than 800 rolls – flipping the channel orientation in the process. The job was completed in a week.

The 729-32 is built for exactly this kind of versatility. Known internally at Catbridge as the “Swiss Army Knife” of slitters, the machine handles a wide range of materials and applications – pressure-sensitive films and tapes, foil, label stock, paper to film and paper to foil laminations, rubber laminations, and more. It supports all three slitting methods – score, shear, and razor – along with center, center surface, and center minimum gap winding modes, giving Pepin the flexibility to run virtually any combination of film and tape materials their customers bring through the door. Automatic taper tension control and Catbridge’s CBM-1 control system come standard.

Specifications for Pepin’s configuration:

• Rewind diameter: 32″ (813 mm)
• Web width: to 84″ (2,137 mm)
• Web speed: to 1,500 fpm (457 m/min)
• Minimum slit width: 1/2″ (13 mm)

Paired with the Model 685 Shaftless Floor Pickup Unwind Stand, the system handles parent rolls up to 50″ (1,270 mm) in diameter and 5,000 lbs. (2,268 kg) – a practical necessity for an operation buying master rolls across multiple material types. The shaftless floor pickup design allows operators to load rolls without a shaft, reducing changeover time and physical strain on the floor team.

Getting from purchase order to production is where many machine installations reveal the character of the manufacturer. For Pepin, it revealed something worth talking about.

Steve was brought on right as the purchase order was being written. He watched the entire process unfold. Before the machine shipped, Pepin’s plant manager traveled to Catbridge’s Montville, New Jersey facility for factory acceptance testing (FAT) – the process where a customer inspects and signs off on a machine before it leaves the manufacturer, confirming it was built to spec and runs correctly. It is standard practice in capital equipment, but the quality of the experience varies considerably by manufacturer. Pepin’s plant manager is a veteran of machine implementation and commissioning who has seen more of these than most. His assessment was unambiguous.

“He was extremely pleased with the attention that Catbridge gave,” Steve said. “Very, very happy with the FAT.”

The onsite training that followed – led by a Catbridge technician – left an equally strong impression. According to Steve, the trainer arrived well-prepared, worked patiently with the floor team through every aspect of the machine’s operation, and made sure Pepin’s operators were genuinely comfortable before leaving.

“That was one of the better sessions I’ve noticed,” Steve said. “So we appreciate that.”

The sales and engineering process itself was not without complexity. Pepin was newer to this scale of slitting and rewinding, and the initial ask encompassed more than the machine could fully deliver. Catbridge’s team worked through material types, job parameters, operator needs, and packaging requirements to identify what Pepin actually needed and configure a solution that would perform reliably.

“We utilized our process to hone in on what it was that Pepin really needed,” said Tanya Pier, Sales Operations and Marketing, Catbridge Machinery.

The payoff of that process was a machine that has done exactly what it was described to do – nothing more, nothing less, and in practice that consistency is rare enough to notice.

“What it was told to us that it would do and what it’s doing are exactly the same,” Steve said. “And that’s all you can ask.”

Looking ahead, Pepin sees the 729-32 as a platform for growth on two fronts. Internally, the ability to slit master rolls to production widths directly supports their existing medical device and specialty converting work, reducing purchasing costs and improving scheduling flexibility. Externally, the machine positions Pepin to pursue a more diverse contract converting customer base – films, filters, industrial substrates, and more – that was not accessible to them before.

The relationship with Catbridge has extended beyond the machine itself. Pepin has integrated Catbridge’s free online job time calculator into their own estimating workflow, using it to calculate job times and build more accurate pricing for contract converting quotes.

For Steve and the Pepin team, the experience points to a straightforward conclusion: when the machine does what it was built to do, and the people behind it show up the same way, you have a partnership worth talking about.

“We sure appreciate the patience but also the partnership,” Steve said.

To learn more about the Catbridge Model 729-32 Duplex Slitter Rewinder and the Model 685 Shaftless Floor Pickup Unwind Stand, visit catbridge.com or contact the Catbridge Solutions Team.

About Pepin Manufacturing

Pepin Manufacturing, Inc. is headquartered in Lake City, Minnesota, with an additional facility in Wabasha, Minnesota. Learn more at pepinmfg.com.

About Catbridge Machinery

Catbridge Machinery designs and manufactures high-performance slitter rewinders and web converting systems for manufacturers across packaging, film, paper, nonwovens, and specialty materials. With engineering and manufacturing operations based in New Jersey, Catbridge delivers application-specific solutions focused on precision, reliability, and long-term performance. Learn more at www.catbridge.com.