Development of Composite Pressing Rollers for Thin Film Processing

A composite pressing roller for continuous thin polymer film processing and paper manufacturing was designed and manufactured. During thin polymer film processing, films are vulnerable to damage due to the inertia of pressing rollers especially during the start and stop periods. Therefore, pressing rollers must have low rotational inertia and high bending stiffness for uniform film thickness. In this work, the pressing roller was designed and manufactured with high modulus carbon fiber composite material to exploit the high specific stiffness of composite material. The optimal stacking sequence of the composite pressing roller and the thickness of the rubber coating layer on the composite pressing roller were calculated using FEM analysis to give uniform pressure along the axial length of the pressing roller. Then the performance of the manufactured composite pressing roller was experimentally evaluated.