THE PROJECT
Enbi developed several rollers used for the paper transport in a relatively small industrial printer. We started with EPDM compounds, but system changes from the customer caused increase wear of the rollers. The increased wear meant the replacement was too reduced and so a solution was needed to increase the service life.
THE HISTORY
It is generally known that PU (Polyurethane) has a better abrasion resistance than EPDM. Therefore, we switched all rollers to a millable PU. This had good results except for one pick roller where the abrasion was still too high. The problem was that the standard DIN abrasion test was not reflection the functionality. This means that compounds with a lower/better test value in the standard test resulted in a lower lifetime.
OUR APPROACH
Because the relation between standard test and performance in the application was not existing anymore, we developed a new test method for abrasion in combination with friction to paper, that did give reliable results or prediction for the lifetime of the products in the application. At the end an XNBR compound resulted in the required lifetime for the product in the application
BENEFITS TO THE CUSTOMER
By solving this problem, the customer was able to keep the end user happy and to increase the mean time to failure as well as reducing service costs. It was also a good lesson that standard property tests cannot always be translated to the properties in the applications – this is where our Engineers can help to develop materials to suit your needs exactly
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