The need for speed: blue FDA compliant knife edge rollers

Matthew Aldridge, UK Managing Director of igus, the global manufacturer of energy chain systems and polymer plain bearings, explained: “As a result of the growing demands for productivity in the food industry, our design team have focused on creating a new product to help deliver the increased speeds needed by production plants.

“The need for more speed means the machine components need to be more sophisticated than ever. One example are the knife edge rollers that guide conveyor belts in a pasta processing plant. This new product is made precisely for such an application.”

This new iglidur A250 marks the extension of igus’ knife edge roller product range. The blue tribo-polymer is wear-resistant and withstands high belt speeds of up to 1 metre per second.

The new polymer requires only a low drive power due to minimised friction and like all iglidur polymers, the iglidur A250 does not require any external lubrication, is insensitive to dust and dirt and easy to clean. Tested in igus’ in-house laboratory, the new material has demonstrated wear resistance and a long service life of up to ten times longer than other igus FDA-compliant materials at maximum belt speeds. Also, due to its blue colour, it is optically detectable.

Knife edge rollers for reliable conveying

For years, knife edge rollers made of iglidur tribo-polymers have proved to be ideal solutions in the food industry when it comes to transporting products over knife edge transitions that are restricted by installation space. This is because if two conveyor belts for very small products are joined together, the radii of the guide rollers result in a gap between the belts. This presents problem for products such as raw croissants, biscuits and even cakes, which can quickly slide into the gap between the conveyor belts.

For a safe transfer of products from belt to belt, the deflection radii between the belts of the conveyor lines must therefore be kept to a minimum. This is where the knife edge rollers come into play. They are compact and also reliably guide the belts. As well as iglidur A250, igus also offers the materials iglidur H1, P210 and other food grade solutions such as iglidur A180 and A350 in its knife edge roller product range.