Food & Beverage Asia August/September 2021

FIRST LOOKS 53
igus now offers cost-effective production of lubrication-free
gears with in-house injection moulding
igus now offers production with injection
moulding in addition to mechanical
processing from bar stock and additive
manufacturing specifically for the production
of wear-resistant and durable gears in high
volumes. Users now have the possibility to
use a large variety of lubrication-free iglidur
materials from igus.
Polymer gears are popular because they do
not require lubricating oil and are therefore
maintenance-free. At the same time, they
ensure quiet operation and considerable
weight savings. Highly wear-resistant
gears made from 3D printing as well as
mechanically machined gears made from
iglidur bar stock have been offered by
igus for several years. For the economical
production of high volumes, igus now
expands its range to include injectionmoulded
gears.
Gericke introduces ergonomic and safe reactor filling based on
pneumatic conveying
Gericke was challenged to unload different
powders delivered in small bags into several
large reactors with volumes of more than
100m 3 . The traditional filling method of
tipping directly above the reactor through
an inlet had created several safety and
ergonomic issues.
The solution installing
a bag unloading
station on the ground
floor to eliminate much
of the bag handling
by the operator. The
large opening of
the bag unloading
station is designed
Gericke Pneumatic
Conveying System
Steffen Schack, head of the new iglidur Gear
Business Unit at igus GmbH, shared that
they currently offer injection-moulded gears
made of the materials xirodur B180 and
iglidur F, each in three hub designs.
xirodur B180 is a wear-resistant endurance
runner and dampens vibrations. On the other
hand, iglidur F also has a long service life
and is suitable for applications with high
temperatures. In addition, the black polymer
is electrically conductive.
GEARS MADE OF IGLIDUR HIGH-
PERFORMANCE POLYMERS LAST
FOUR TIMES LONGER
igus gears developed from the iglidur highperformance
polymers have a significantly
longer service life than standard plastic
gears. Testing by igus showed that injectionmoulded
gears made of the material xirodur
to unload 20kg bags of a very light filter aid
powder. During unloading into the tipping
station, a vacuum conveying system
fed by a discharge screw installed at the
bottom of the bag tipping station sucks the
material away, allowing even bad flowing
powders to be emptied easily. The vacuum
system transfers the powders from the bag
tipping station into a large receiving vessel.
This vessel is on load cells so the weight
is protocolled and checked at all times,
ensuring that the correct batch weights
are filled. The powders are unloaded in this
way with a total batch size of 50-400kg of
all involved powders filled into the receiving
vessel.
The vacuum receiver vessel then changes
its function and acts as a pressure vessel
suited for dense-phase positive pressure
conveying. A carrier gas – pressurised
B180 have a four-times longer service life
than gears made of POM (polyoxymethylene).
Depending on the configuration and application
scenario, igus offers manufacturing in three
different processes for the fast delivery of
wear-resistant customised components. Thus,
3D-printed gears made from iglidur I3 are the
medium of choice. Mechanical machining
from iglidur bar stock, for example, is suitable
for producing gears in large volumes.
Injection moulding, on the other hand, offers
the greatest iglidur material variety and
cost-effective batch production of special
dimensions. ■
igus Gericke
For cost-effective
production of wearresistant
gears in high
volumes, igus now
offers injection moulding
production in addition to
machining and 3D printing
(Photo credit: igus GmbH)
nitrogen – is used to transfer the material.
Before starting the transfer from the Gericke
pressure vessel, the receiving reactor is put
under vacuum. The dense phase conveying
system consumes only limited nitrogen so
the scrubber on the reactor can be kept
closed during the filling process, reducing
the vacuum in the reactor slightly.
The complete batch is emptied from the
pressure vessel and filled into the reactors
situated over 30m away from the tipping
station, isolating the latter from the reaction
area. With positive dense phase conveying
systems, conveying distances of more than
100m are feasible.
During the project, the function of both
vacuum and positive pressure dense phase
conveying systems was tested in Regensdorf
(Switzerland). ■
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2021