We were approached by a paper processing customer who was experiencing a high build-up of sticky residue on their rubber rollers as part of their process. This led to increased cleaning regimes, machine down time and in turn increased costs.
The rubber roller had a 160mm diameter with a face length of 2500mm and was a ‘bow’ roller, which has a slight curvature.
Bow rollers are used alongside a ‘lead’ roll and are part of the feed mechanism, they are often referred to as spreader rollers as they help to push the paper flat and thereby reducing winkles and creases.
A heat shrinkable FEP roll cover was selected to suit the 160mm diameter of the roller, in this instance an ARC150 was chosen with a nominal recovered wall thickness of 0.7mm.
As this was a simple rubber roller and it wasn’t a ‘nip’ roller application then the sleeve did not need to be chemically etched and bonded to the roller.
In this instance the FEP roll cover sleeve was shipped to the customer for them to apply to the roller themselves. Installing the sleeves yourselves can reduce the machine down time to hours compared with days when sending rollers away for a sprayed-on coating in addition to transportation costs. Alternatively, our experienced staff can fit our FEP heat shrinkable roll covers to rollers of any size in our workshop or at your premises.
We would recommend that the Adtech fitting team apply sleeves to ‘nip’ rollers, rollers where the FEP sleeve needs to be bonded to the rubber surface and if the roller diameter is over 100mm and the customers engineering team do not have suitable installation experience.
From non-stick qualities to excellent resistance to chemicals and corrosion, FEP and PFA enjoy the unique properties of fluoropolymers. The longevity of FEP and PFA is also excellent, being suitable for long-term use in both hot and cold environments with minimal long-term deterioration.
In contrast to a sprayed-on PTFE roller coating of 0.005mm in thickness, which is used with metal rollers, FEP and PFA roll covers are typically much sturdier and more durable at 0.5mm in thickness. As such, these fluoropolymers work much more efficiently for a comparable or even reduced price.
For more arduous and extremely high temperature applications, PFA roll covers have a flex life of ten times FEP and can withstand temperatures of up to 250°C (as opposed to 200°C with FEP).
If you have bow, lead or nip rollers that you would like to treat with a heat shrinkable FEP or PFA cover, this can be easily achieved with minimum disruption to your operations. Our FEP and PFA roll covers can be applied using a simple hot air gun.
If the FEP roll cover sleeve needs to be bonded to the roller (eg. under nip conditions), the inside surface of the roll cover can also be supplied etched to assist the bonding process. The chemical etching process is normally carried out to order on FEP roll covers that are held in stock.
We can produce FEP roller coatings from 21mm up to 350mm diameter. We keep many standard sizes in stock and can custom manufacture larger diameters for special applications in single quantities. PFA roll covers are made to order.
Here at Adtech, we are specialists in delivering innovative fluoroplastic solutions for your technical applications. We understand that every customer’s application is different, so our knowledgeable customer service and R&D teams are on hand to discuss your project.
Get in touch today to ask for more information or to discuss your requirements:
t: +44 (0) 1285 762000