UHMW PE Heat Shrinkable Roll Covers can be installed at the paper mill like Teflon® FEP roll covers, but they wear 30 times longer. Application over rusted, pitted steel rolls, fiberglass or rubber covered rolls are acceptable. A segmented bowed roll is an ideal application for this product.

Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW-PE) has a molecular weight of 3-6 million, as compared to pipe grade high-density polyethylene, with a molecular weight of 600,000. UHMW-PE is the toughest plastic known with no breakage in standard izod impact tests. 

Standard Product:

• Standard thickness is .060"
• Minimum diameter is 6 1/4"

Potential Advantages of UHMW PE Roll Covers:

• Restoration of a surface pitted or rusted roll to a high gloss surface.
• Better release than steel, fiberglass or common rubbers.
• Lower wear of machine cloth and wires.
• Installation in your mill.
• Best wearing of all plastic and rubber materials.
• Paper carrying rolls, felt and wire return rolls.
• Ideal for segmented bowed rolls

Other Applications for UHMW PE:

Varied uses include pickers on mechanical looms, pile driver pads, truck bed liners and Panama Canal lock bumpers. In addition, liners on railroad hopper cars transporting fine iron ore and unlubricated fifth wheel wear plate benefit the application.

An anti-static material is also available which reduces static build up on roll covers. Static dissipative UHMW-PE is used for components in conveying and material-handling systems in mines, ammunition plants, grain silos, and powder processing facilities. Its use reduces the risk of explosion caused by static charge.

Abrasion Resistance:

UHMW-PE has three times better abrasion resistance than polyurethane (the most abrasion resistant elastomeric roll cover). In addition the abrasion resistance of UHMW-PE in a 50% sand slurry is 10 times the abrasion resistance of carbon steel, more than double that of 6-6 nylon, and seven times that of PTFE. The self-lubricating properties of UHMW-PE are comparable to those of PTFE in dynamic friction.

Temperature Resistance:

Characteristics include no melting, flowing, or liquefying at its crystalline melting point of 280º-289º F. Shape retention above this temperature is due to the many entanglements of its long chain.

Our suggested service limit is 160º F.

It has useful properties in temperature as low as liquid hydrogen pumps – 425º F and is used for slides on snow mobile tracks, ski bottoms, and snow plow blades.