Material Handling

Moving materials from one place to another has led to the development of very ingenious machinery, machinery that in many instances relies on the excellent friction and wear properties of some of Ticona's resins for its functionality. One very effective low friction approach to material handling is to run a surface of Celcon® or Hostaform® acetal copolymer against one of Celanex® polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). Not only does this type of combination make sense for conveyers of various kinds, the acetal copolymer by itself exhibits low friction and wear when run against metal. These kinds of pairings are particularly useful in food processing and handling, and Ticona offers both Celanex PBT and Celcon/Hostaform acetal copolymer products that comply with applicable US FDA and European Union regulations for food contact.

Of course, these are not the only products from Ticona employed in materials handling. Another very useful material is GUR® ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene (UH-MWPE). This resin's remarkably low coefficient of friction is coupled with extremely high wear resistance, making it also very useful in conveyer belt and track applications. GUR UH-MWPE is also frequently used in screw conveyers. These devices can be found in many areas, from food processing to package handling and range from screws with a simple uniform pitch to complex shapes with varying pitch and diameter. These devices are made by sintering the resin into a suitable shape and machining the screw profile from it.

For more extreme conditions of temperature and or chemical exposure, an outstanding choice is Ticona's Fortron® polyphenylene sulfide (PPS). In challenging applications such as sewer chains, Fortron PPS can replace iron and provide a large weight saving, while delivering the economics of injection molding to link manufacturing.

Where high strength and stiffness are needed, as for instance in multi-use dunnage racks, designers may turn to components made from Celstran®  long-fiber reinforced thermoplastics (LFRT) based on either polypropylene or nylon. Overall, Ticona’s resins can be found in conveyer belts, chains, wheels, and bolts, drive gears, pallets and dunnage and various other components of materials transport equipment.