/ By Kastalon / Custom Engineering • Packaging Industry • Polyurethane/ • • • • • • • • • • • / 0 Comments

Polyurethane Is A Perfect Fit For Pipe And Bar Straighteners

Pipe and bar straighteners are a great market for polyurethane parts for noise suppression, product protection and conveying. Kastalon has supplied this market place with many parts on an MRO basis. We have developed a material that has the impact resistance, cushioning and enhanced wear resistance required to provide the optimum in life for a trough liner.

We would recommend using material thicker than 3/4″, generally 1-1/4″ to 2″ thicknesses is ideal. The liner will function properly until it is worn through. Some additional positions that could and should be polyurethane/plastic covered are:

  • Protective Pads: (shock absorption, noise suppression, cut, tear and abrasion resistance, product protection)
  • Kicker shoes (these are the arms that pick up and push or kick the tube/pipe/bar, down the ramps).
  • Transfer arm covers (similar or the same as kicker arms, they also may be a wheel moving the pipe from one conveyor to the other)
  • Any hard stop surfaces for the pipe
  • V Rollers for roller transport (better friction and drive than plastic)

Kastalon produces a highly engineered a polyurethane compound in 75 Shore D hardness that is extremely effective in protecting the pipe surface and has a very long life. We find these straighteners mostly in solid bar plants where shafting and forging stock have very critical surface finish requirements (to prevent stress points in the surface of the bar which lead to cracks)

Any where there is shock, polyurethane due to its elastomeric nature, including in plastic hardness, is more effective and long lived than plastic.

/ By Lyn Thorne / Agricultural Equipment • Automotive and Transport Industry • Custom Engineering • Energy Engineering and Design • Mining Industry • Polyurethane/ • • • • • / 0 Comments

Mining uncovers polyurethane advantages

One of the by-products of mining involves displacing huge amounts of dirt so it only seems natural that the type of equipment that is used is coined “earth movers”. Equally as logical is the fact that the OEM’s for these types of equipment must consider certain protection from the abrasive nature of dirt and vibration. For many years, Kastalon has engineered a proprietary polyurethane formula specifically for these types of applications.

Recently, a new mining challenge was given to the Kastalon designers for their problem solving. When reeling in a 4″ diameter steel cable, protection was needed to prevent the cable from banging into the steel structure of the equipment. Historically, wood blocks had been used to shield the cable from damage. The downside was that the wood splintered and broke easily. This created a housekeeping mess which required additional labor to clean-up and replace the blocks. If the operators did not take the time for the necessary maintenance, the steel cable would get damaged from banging into the steel structure which shortened the life of the cable.

Using the same proprietary Kastalon Polyurethane® formula used for other mining applications, the designers presented an engineered polyurethane pad that had a much longer life than the wood blocks it was replacing. In fact, the first set lasted over two years, which was unprecedented. The other advantage was that when the pads did need to be replaced, they were easily replaceable.

To learn more about Kastalon mining solutions or to contact a designer for a project that needs improvement, contact Lyn at sales@kastalon.com.