Designing a coating roller for thin fabrics in the automotive industry
The Special Projects department at Meler designs a coating roller capable of working with textile materials with a ≤ 1.5mm thickness with a speed of up to 10m/min.
One of the most recent projects from the Focke Meler Special Projects Department has been the manufacture of a coating roller designed especially for the automotive sector.
The challenge
The customer needed to optimise the PUR adhesive application for some textile parts with a very reduced thickness to achieve an almost immediate production. Another of the customer’s requirements was to optimise space.
The solution
The Special Projects team designed a new coating roller with an automatic return table that permits reaching an application speed of up to 10m/min. This high speed makes it especially suitable for applying reactive adhesives with opening cycles of around 15s.
To be able to work with low grammage textile materials (≤ of 1.5mm) the table has some simple fixings installed that maintain the position of two substrates throughout the coating process without any difficulty for the operator. The roller allows for the gluing of two parts in the same process.
The Meler brand value
Taking into account the customer’s specifications, our experts opted for a compact but versatile design applying Meler’s trademark design concepts:
- Industry 4.0 connectivity: the roller can be integrated into the production line for automating the entire process by remote control. Moreover, it can send the adhesive application data in real time for a complete control of the QUALITY.
- Energy efficiency and adhesive care: the tank that integrates the roller is specifically designed to optimise the melting of adhesive, avoiding overloads and unforeseen events (carbonisation of the adhesive, obstructions, etc.).
- Saving of maintenance costs: the roller has a cleaning mode that performs an automatic adhesive tank emptying function to facilitate and minimise the operator’s cleaning tasks
- Safety and versatility: the external structure maintains a closed operating circuit while it permits the incorporation of accessories that increase the quality of the process (UV light, air barriers, etc.).
- Accessibility and usability: all the machine’s operating parameters are controlled via an easy-to-use touchscreen. The components are visible and easy to access allowing simple maintenance and cleaning procedures so that the roller can be quickly put back into operation
Safe and closed structure
All the machine’s operating parameters are controlled via an easy-to-use touchscreen.
The simple fixings installed allow the lamination of two substrates in one cycle
Mechanical system to ensure gap accuracy
Easy-Clean technology for perfect maintenance
Total accessibility to all roller components
As a result, Focke Meler has managed to offer the customer a product tailored to their requirements and has also provided better connectivity, greater efficiency and a better cost/maintenance relation.
The manufacturing project for this customised roller took 8 weeks: from the presentation of the customer’s technical document to the roller leaving Meler’s production plant. While this new roller travels to our customer’s facilities in the Czech Republic accompanied by our technical team for its commissioning, the Focke Meler Special projects team is already working on the design of two new customised rollers.