As the global paper industry faces multiple challenges—fluctuating raw material prices, stricter environmental regulations, and the need for higher production efficiency—rollers, as a core consumable in paper machines, directly determine production continuity, paper quality stability, and overall operating costs. Drawing on over 20 years of polyurethane material R&D and precision manufacturing experience, Feilong has introduced specialized roller solutions that address the technical pain points of traditional products, offering the industry an upgrade path combining both cost-effectiveness and reliability.
I. Key Technical Pain Points in Paper Industry Roller Applications
The paper production environment imposes stringent, multi-dimensional demands on rollers. Traditional rubber or ordinary polyurethane products often face the following performance bottlenecks:
- Balance Between Wear Resistance and Service Life Natural rubber rollers, under the high-load friction of the press section, often show surface cracks and localized wear within 3–6 months, requiring 4–8 replacements annually. Data from a 100,000-ton/year cultural paper producer shows that annual replacement and maintenance costs for traditional rollers account for 18–22% of total equipment O&M costs, with downtime losses reaching 50–100 tons/year.
- Operational Stability Affecting Product Quality Rubber materials have unstable dynamic friction coefficients, which can cause “stick-slip” at speeds above 1500 m/min, leading to wrinkles and basis weight variations. Traditional rollers typically have cylindricity errors of 0.03–0.05 mm and surface roughness Ra ≥ 1.5 μm, making it hard to meet the ±1% cross-direction uniformity required for high-grade cultural paper. This can lead to a 2–3% defect rate.
- Conflict Between Dewatering Efficiency and Energy Costs Ordinary rollers lack sufficient elastic modulus, resulting in low press dewatering efficiency. Post-press dryness is typically 40–42%, making the drying section’s energy consumption reach 45–50% of total plant usage. Meanwhile, VOC emissions from rubber roller manufacturing fail to meet increasingly strict global environmental standards.
II. Feilong’s Technological Breakthroughs for Polyurethane Rollers
By innovating in material formulation, precision manufacturing, and structural optimization, Feilong has achieved systematic performance enhancements across three dimensions:
- Scientifically Balanced Material System Using a polyether-based polyurethane substrate with nano-scale reinforcing fillers and functional crosslinking agents, Feilong delivers:
- Wear resistance 3–5 times that of natural rubber; abrasion ≤ 0.05 cm³/1.61 km (GB/T 9867), extending service life to 12–18 months under moderate loads.
- Shore hardness adjustable from 60A to 95A, suitable for different functions—press rollers (high hardness) and spreader rollers (medium-low hardness).
- Stable performance in pH 3–11 environments, with superior resistance to bleaching agents like hydrogen peroxide and sodium hypochlorite compared to nitrile rubber.
- Precision Manufacturing Quality Assurance With five-axis CNC shaping and mold-free casting technology:
- Surface roughness Ra ≤ 0.8 μm; cylindricity error ≤ 0.02 mm for uniform contact at high speeds.
- Dynamic balancing precision G2.5 (≤ 5 g·mm/kg residual imbalance at 3000 rpm), reducing vibration and noise.
- Capable of producing large rollers up to 12 m in length and 1.5 m in diameter, with ±0.1 mm/m size tolerance for wide-format machines.
- Function-Oriented Structural Innovation Tailored designs for different paper machine sections:
- Press rollers with “groove + blind hole” composite structure (15–20% porosity) improve dewatering efficiency by 15–20%.
- Coating rollers with optimized micro-convex textures improve coating transfer by 8–12%, reducing raw material waste.
- Guide rollers with low-friction treatment (static friction ≤ 0.3) reduce tensile stress and break risk.
III. Proven Industrial Results
Cultural Paper Producer (5.6 m width, 1600 m/min speed) using 85A hardness polyurethane press rollers:
- Press dryness improved from 41% to 44.5%, cutting drying steam use by 7.2% and saving ¥1.8M/year in energy costs.
- Roller replacement cycle extended from 4 to 16 months, reducing downtime by 64 hours/year and adding 3,200 tons of capacity.
- Basis weight variation reduced from ±2.8% to ±1.5%, improving yield by 1.2 percentage points and cutting scrap losses by ¥960,000/year.
Corrugated Paper Producer (1800 m/min speed) with polyurethane guide and spreader rollers:
- Break frequency reduced from 0.6/hour to 0.2/hour, adding 1.5 hours/day of effective production time.
- Edge waste reduced by 35%, saving ¥1.2M/year in pulp costs.
- Equipment vibration reduced from 1.8 mm/s to 0.8 mm/s, extending bearing life by 50%.
Food Packaging Paper Producer with precision-ground polyurethane coating rollers:
- Coating thickness deviation narrowed from ±3 μm to ±1 μm; product pass rate rose from 92% to 97.5%.
- Improved coating uniformity enhanced print adaptability, reducing customer complaints by 60%.
- Roller cleaning interval extended from 8 hours to 24 hours, cutting auxiliary labor by 66%.
IV. Industry Value and Selection Guide
Core Value Dimensions
- Environmental Upgrades: Solvent-free manufacturing reduces VOC emissions by over 90%; operational carbon emissions down by 5–8%, aligned with global low-carbon goals.
- Smart Adaptation: Integrated sensors enable real-time pressure and temperature monitoring for predictive maintenance, improving OEE from 76% to 85% in one case.
Scientific Selection Recommendations
- By Paper Type: Cultural paper prioritizes surface smoothness and pressure uniformity; packaging paper prefers 90–95A high hardness; specialty paper requires low-migration formulations.
- By Machine Section: Press section—high modulus (≥ 80 MPa) open-structure rollers; coating section—high-precision (≤ 0.01 mm cylindricity) low-surface-energy rollers; winding section—high-friction (≥ 0.6) fatigue-resistant rollers.
- By Operating Parameters: Speeds > 1500 m/min require G2.5 balancing; line pressures > 200 kN/m need high-strength shafts; temperatures > 60°C require heat-resistant formulas.
Conclusion
As the paper industry transitions toward high-quality growth, Feilong Polyurethane Equipment’s integrated innovations in materials, processes, and structure not only resolve traditional issues of short lifespan, low efficiency, and high maintenance costs in rollers, but also deliver proven gains in production efficiency, product stability, and total cost reduction. For paper manufacturers pursuing sustainable competitiveness, adopting industrially validated solutions is key to breaking development bottlenecks.
