/ 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 / Automotive and Transport Industry • Can Manufacturing Industry • Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry • Material Handling and Logistics • Polyurethane • Roller Sleeves/ • • • • • / 0 Comments

Designing Rollers – Kastalon helps companies save by joining their design team!

When designing a roller assembly it is critical to take into consideration the actual application and environment that rollers will be operating in. Although the drawing might be accurate, it is essential to involve your roller manufacturer in the design phase to assist in choosing the right polyurethane compound that the roller will be covered with. Not all polyurethanes are the same, but understanding how the roller is going to be used and where the roller will be located, is essential in choosing the right material that will result in the best performance.

To avoid over engineering a roller assembly, which can affect the cost and lead time, the roller manufacturer can help choose the proper material with adequate tolerances for the specific application being planned. For example, calling out a very tight tolerance can drive up the cost of the roller unnecessarily.

This is where Kastalon can help.

Recently, a customer gave us a drawing for a new roller assembly for a new process. The engineers called out a TIR of .005. After several months of receiving the rollers as requested, they sat down with us and shared their concern that the cost of the rollers was negatively impacting their ability to sell their new system. Once they shared the actual application and environment with our design engineers it was determined by opening up the tolerance to .015, the cost could be reduced by more 20% with no effect on quality, life expectancy or system efficiency. The lead time was also significantly reduced and the outcome was the customer’s ability to deliver their new system at a lower cost and a reduced lead time.

We like to think that having us on your design team is a win, win proposition!