Rubber Rollers

About Rubber Rollers and Rubber Roller Manufacturers Including: Conveyor Rollers, Drive Rollers, Grooved Rollers, Guide Rollers, Industrial Rollers, Ink Rollers, Laminating Rollers, Polyurethane Rollers, Rollers, Rubber Rolls, Silicone Rollers & Urethane Rollers.

Rubber rollers, also frequently referred to as rubber rolls, are cylindrical tubes that have an elastomer bonded to a typically metallic core or they can be formed as solid rubber.  As basic and essential components of many industrial manufacturing applications, rubber rollers can suit many purposes. Primarily used to facilitate movement to various machine parts, as is the case with drive rollers, they can also be used to provide support and transportation to materials moving through the machine, examples of which include conveyor rollers and guide rollers. Fabricated using a wide variety of elastomeric materials, rubber rollers include silicone rollers, EPDM rollers, urethane rollers, nitrile rollers, polyurethane rollers, neoprene rollers and more. Rubber rollers formed using a metallic core, typical core materials being aluminum, stainless steel and steel, are often used as industrial rollers for heavy-duty applications such as metal processing, heat treating, packaging and bulk material handling. Additional industries that utilize rubber rollers include: electronics, for print circuit boards (PCBs), laser printers, photographic imaging and photocopiers; medical, for medical chart recorders and medical imaging equipment; automotive, for power transmission applications; and pulp and paper, for newspaper printing, commercial printing and paper converting. Other rubber roller applications include coating, drying, annealing, calendaring and embossing.

Due to the wide range of applications and industries that utilize rubber rollers, there are a correspondingly vast number of rubber roller types. However, there are some more common types and some more obscure types: some of the more common types include conveyor rollers, drive rollers, guide rollers, ink rollers and grooved rollers. Conveyor rollers, arguably the most common type of rubber roller, can be made from a variety of rubber materials. However, urethane is a common material choice because it offers such advantages as excellent shock absorption, high abrasion resistance, minimal slippage and a much less noisy work environment. Drive rollers have a unique design in that they have integral shafts that feature a keyway intended for sprockets or gears used to run the roller. This type of rubber roller is often used for machinery such as web machines and converters. Guide rollers, also known as idler rollers, are used to provide support, typically to roller conveyor systems. However, guide rolls do not have the ability convey power or to make directional changes like drive rollers. Ink rollers, or printing rollers, may either contain ink within the roller itself, or simply be engraved with the pattern desired to be printed. Ink rollers can be utilized in machinery sized anywhere from small office equipment or large printing presses. Grooved rollers are often grooved in a V, U or spiral pattern. Grooved rollers are commonly used in applications such as belt driven conveyor systems and laminating machinery.

The more obscure rubber rollers types are very specific to the intended application. For instance, laminating rollers are a type of heated roller, designed for an application that requires heat in order to occur. As a result, laminating rollers are fabricated from such heat-resistant materials as silicone which can perform well up to temperatures as high as 500ºF (260°C). Other types of less common rubber rollers include cleaning rollers, live shaft rollers, dead shaft rollers, stinger rollers and spreader rollers. Highly specialized, cleaning rollers can be used to clean a variety of surfaces through the removal of dust and other contaminating particulates. Well-suited for high load quantities and rough environments, live shaft rollers contain external bearings in which both the roller shaft and the roller itself rotates. Dead shaft rollers, on the other hand, have internal bearings at the location of the spinning roller that rotates around a stationary shaft. Used in applications such as offshore pipe-lay vessels, stinger rollers are very similar to dead shaft rollers except that stinger rollers are designed to be function specifically in marine applications. Used in many spreading applications, spreader rollers are commonly used in webs spreading machinery in order to prevent web wrinkling and to fix wrinkles by stretching and spreading the web. Spreader rollers are often machined with grooves in designs such as herringbone, spiral, lateral-fluted or circumferential.

Rubber rollers are typically manufactured through molding or casting processes, but may also be formed through extrusion processes. For solid rubber rollers, molding processes such as injection or compression molding are most likely used. In injection molding, the elastomeric material is heated then injected into the cavity of a split die chamber/mold, which is then clamped shut, then cooled to form the part. For compression molding, the rubber material is placed in a mold under heat and pressure is applied in order to achieve the desired shape. For extrusion, rubber rollers can be formed through heating elastomeric materials then squeezing the molten material through a die that has a pin attached to the center, used to create the hollow inside part of the tube. For rubber rollers with a metallic core, the core is typically formed through a metal machining process such as stamping. Metal stamping is like extrusion for metal, with the same type of die with a pin, which shapes metal parts from the inserted metal material. The upper component of the die connects to the press slide, with the lower component connecting to the bed of the press. The punch, or ram, then applies pressure and forces the metal material to be squeezed through the die and form the new part. In order to form a rubber coating over the metal core, a rubber to metal bonding process is used. In rubber to metal bonding, rubber is adhered to a metal substrate through the use of a bonding agent, which typically consists of polymer/solvent solutions, a primer coat based on phenolic-style resins and a top layer that is a mix of polymers and other materials.

Rubber Rollers and Rubber Roller Manufacturers Images Provided by Hiawatha Rubber Co.

Types of Rubber Rollers

• Cleaning rollers are used in countless applications to clean varying surfaces. Clean rollers are highly specialized and are especially useful for removing dust and particulate.
  
• Conveyor rollers are integral components of roller conveyor systems. Conveyor rollers, that form roller beds, transport materials along the conveyor from one location to another.
  
• Dead shaft rollers have internal bearings at the location of the spinning roll body that rotate around a stationary, or dead, shaft.
  
• Distribution rollers are rubber-coated rollers used in the printing process to distribute ink from the fountain to the ink drum.
  
• Drive rollers have integral shafts with a keyway for sprockets or gears in order to run the roller.
  
• Idler rolls, also called "guide rollers," provide support to the roller system. However, idler rolls do not convey power or make changes in direction like process rolls.
  
• Live shaft rolls are rolls containing external bearings in which both the roll shaft and the roll rotate. These rollers work best under high loads and rough environmental conditions, such as high temperatures.
  
• Polyurethane rollers, or "urethane rollers," are strong and abrasion resistant. Although urethane rolls have a low resistance to acids, they maintain good resistance to chemicals and oils.
  
• Natural rubber rolls perform well in low temperatures and maintain good strength and elastomeric properties. However, natural rubber rolls have a low heat and oil resistance.
  
• Neoprene rollers have great weather and heat resistance and maintain a moderate resistance to most chemicals.
  
• Rollers are cylinders used in industrial equipment to move machine components and products.
• Rubber rolls are rubber tubes that facilitate movement of materials through machinery.
• Silicone rollers, while often more costly than other types of rubber rollers, perform well under temperatures as high as 500º F (260º C). Silicone rolls also have great resistance to ozone and chemicals but are not typically used in situations requiring great strength.
  
• Stinger rollers rotate around a stationary shaft and have internal bearings.
  
• Urethane rollers are made of a thermoplastic polymer and are used in printing presses, labeling machines, and as ink rollers.
• "V" rollers are hourglass-shaped rollers that may or may not have outside or integral bearings. "V" rollers are used for conveying pipe longitudinally.
  
• Web spreader rolls are used to prevent web wrinkling and to fix wrinkles by stretching and spreading the web.

Rubber Rollers Terms

Balance Correction - A process used to correct roller imbalance and associated rotation by either lessening roll weight through drilling or increasing roll weight by adding weights to the roll interior.

Balance Toleration - The amount of imbalance that a roller can tolerate while still working properly.

Ball - The bearing mechanism placed between roll races that keeps the internal race motionless, while permitting the rotation of the external race.

Ball Retainer - The mechanism that facilitates high roller speed through the separation of the bearing balls.

Bearing - A rotary support mechanism placed either on the interior or exterior of a roll to facilitate roll movement.

Calendering - A process by which paper is made by passing it between two rollers, smoothing and polishing the surface.

Coil Coating - A process in which a series of rubber rollers deposit a thin film of paint coating on a continuous metal or plastic web.

Doctor - A blade-like device that removes foreign matter from a roll. The doctor rests on the uprunning surface of the roll.

Dynamic Balancing - Balancing in which a certain degree of rotation occurs due to imbalance. Dynamic balancing is corrected in a balancing machine.

Durometer - An apparatus used for measuring the hardness of rubber.

Elastomer - A material, such as rubber, capable of returning to its initial length after being stretched at room temperature to twice its original length.

Glaze - A build-up on rubber rollers or the blanket of a printing press that negatively affects uniform ink distribution.

Piling - The building up of ink on the rollers, plates or blankets of a printing press.

Roping - Using a bar or roller to gather the full width of stretch film to create a "rope" that is nearly unbreakable.

Static Balancing - Balancing, often occurring in low-speed applications, in which the roll is properly balanced so that no rotation occurs.

Web - Paper used in print media, insert cards, etc. and sold in a roll for high volume, high-speed printing.

Web Handling - The industry involved in processing continuous material strips called webs that will be used in future processing operations. Common web materials include plastic, metal and paper.

Wrinkling - A deformation in a rubber roll in which folds and creases form on the surface of the roll.