On-Site Roll Cleaning

Many web handling applications, such as paper and textile manufacturing and converting, suffer from progressive contamination of roller surfaces over time. Adhesives, fillers, fibers, coatings, and stock can all accumulate on roll faces and can negatively affect product quality, appearance and uniformity. Traction surfaces on winders and reel drums become smoother and more likely to slip, and winding efficiency and quality can suffer. In many cases, the metal roll surface is undamaged and the problem is due entirely to the contamination that has built up on top of the surface. When this is the case, the roll face can often be restored by removing the debris and cleaning the roll face by blasting, either with abrasive or with dry ice pellet (depending on the nature of the contaminant). This is a much faster and simpler process than complete roll resurfacing by thermal spraying, or roll removal and re-grinding.

Roll cleaning is an on-site service we perform, usually during a shutdown or outage. A preliminary inspection will permit our sales team to make an assessment of the roller surface to determine if cleaning will be sufficient or if resurfacing is necessary. By electing to clean the roll face rather than strip and recoat, the turnaround time for an on-site resurfacing operation can be reduced by more than 50%. The determination is typically made by an evaluation of the remaining thickness of applied traction coating still on the roll. The time and cost savings of cleaning on-site are far more substantial for non-coated rolls, where the alternative would be removal and re-grinding of the roll face.