Types of Conveyor Rollers and How They Are Used
04th July 2019
Conveyor rollers are widely used components that serve the simple yet surprisingly diverse functions of facilitating and processing material and product movements in manufacturing and/or industrial settings. While standard conveyor rollers are rollers actually touching the material, there are also conveyor rollers available that are employed in conveyor applications. No matter the industrial application, there is probably a roller system that is a perfect fit.
The primary differentiator between conveyor rollers is the roller material at the point of contact with the material or product because this dictates the function, geometry, and available features of the conveyor rollers. To put it simply, conveyor rollers are available in three material classifications. 1) Urethane/Rubber, 2) Metallic, and 3) Resin.
Metallic conveyor rollers: These conveyor rollers are explicitly designed for sustaining heavy component movement because they can carry a large bearing load with a medium touch. Metallic conveyor rollers, the workforce of conveyor rollers, are employed to move higher loads where workpieces can tolerate a bit of a rough handling touch. These conveyor rollers are available in straight or crowned geometry across a wide range of sizes with bearing, set screw, or mounting methods.
Urethane/Rubber conveyor rollers: In general these types of conveyor rollers are found in applications that necessitate large contact and holding friction forces. They’re also found in more delicate operations such as processing/smoothing wrinkles in paper and/or plastic films. These kinds of conveyor rollers are employed where pieces cannot sustain damage on the surface or the part as a whole. Similarly, rubber conveyor rollers are employed in material processing applications where a light material is required, such as paper, textile, or sheet metal manufacturing or processing. In this fashion, they are even employed in the sheet metal industry where low gauge sheet metal is coiled up into large rolls and the surface finish integrity of the sheet metal is vitally important. These conveyor rollers can be specified with a variety of hardware choices, such as Bearings, set screws, bushing, bolts, keyways or shafts. They are also available in straight or crowned geometry with grooved or knurled heard to add friction and increase the grip strength of the roller system.
Resin conveyor rollers: Resin conveyor rollers are similar in function as rubber/urethane conveyor rollers, but resin conveyor rollers are actually metallic core base conveyor rollers that have undergone a surface application of resin coating. These conveyor rollers are used in applications similar to urethane or rubber conveyor rollers, for applications that require a soft touch or instances where ink or resin coatings are to be applied. Outside of industrial material movement applications, they are also typically used in industry for packaging and/or polymer material storage applications. These conveyor rollers only available in straight shape but can be specified with bearings or side mounted bolt hardware.
This article comes from misumi edit released