Efficient material handling can maximise performance

BNL have over 40 years’ experience designing and manufacturing plastic bearings for material handling, food processing and industrial machinery systems. Our conveyor system range includes end cap bearings, sealed end cap bearings, skate wheel bearings and wheels and rollers in speciality materials that can withstand harsh chemicals and extreme temperatures.

It also designs and manufacture custom bearings for proprietary systems - to extend load capability, for bespoke belts, or to include features such as gear teeth, sprockets or pulley profiles. 

The products are used in material handling and processing lines for Food, Pharma, Packaging, Airports and Cargo, Warehousing, Parcel Distribution, Electronics, Consumer Goods and Supermarkets.

The plastic conveyor bearings meet the performance challenges faced by customers in these industries, such as frequent maintenance and wash downs, no lubrication, ingress of debris and product contamination.

The bearings are made of primarily POM/Acetal material and stainless steel balls and are resistant to the types of corrosion suffered by low grade materials and metal bearings when exposed to cleaning products during frequent wash downs, for example in food processing.

The products being handled or transported can themselves cause performance issues. Acids, alkalis, abrasive powders or dusts; these are all possible by-products in a material handling operation, contaminating the mechanical systems and bearings so that they wear faster or seize up. BNL introduced sealed end cap bearings to the market to solve just this problem - preventing the ingress of debris from affecting performance of the bearings and rollers for our conveyor customers.

POM/Acetal is a naturally lubricated material, so BNL’s conveyor bearings do not need constant maintenance to replace lubrication. Systems can perform without experiencing the drive and system overload issues from lack of lubrication that is often encountered by metal bearings - and without halting operations to replace it.

Products are available in different material configurations to match application requirements. Additionally, speciality material bearings are made of PEEK and UHMWPE with glass, PE or ZO balls, for when the conveyor system needs to withstand harsh chemicals and extreme temperatures, such as in glass and electronics production.

BNL use manufacturing techniques, specifically developed for plastic bearing design and production, to produce bearings that have suitable wear rates in comparison to other bearings on the market. By reducing the requirement for maintenance and lessening bearing wear in conveyor systems, BNL bearings ensure continual product supply at optimum performance whilst avoiding costly down-time.