Moving materials from one place to another seems like it should be simple, but to do it quickly and cost-effectively requires specialty equipment featuring performance plastics. From bearings and rollers to chute liners and sight glasses, polymers cut weight, noise and wear across the line.
Applications
- Bearings, bushings, bearing cages
- Wear pads
- Rollers
- Sheaves/pulleys
- Guides
- Cams/cam followers
- Edge guards/profiles
- Auger edge strips
- Chute liners
- Windows
- Light shields
- Safety sight guards
- Sight glasses (flow control)
- Feed/timing screws
- Star wheels
- Venturi throat liners
Advantages May Include
- Low coefficient of friction
- Noise and vibration attenuation
- High flexibility for ease of installation
- Abrasion resistant
- Static dissipative and conductive grades
- Corrosion resistant
- Lightweight
- Impact resistant
- Light transmission/clarity
- Temperature resistance (hot or cold)
Materials
- Acrylic (PMMA)
- Nylon (PA)
- Polycarbonate (PC)
- Polyetheretherketone (PEEK)
- Polyethylene (PE)
- Polypropylene (PP)
- Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)
- Polyethyleneterephthalate (PET)
- Polyurethane (PU/PUR)
- Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
- Polyamide-Imide (PAI)
- Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMW-PE)
Sustainability Advantages of Performance Plastics
1/8 Weight
UHMW weighs 1/8 as much as steel but can outlast it 3:1 in most conveyor applications — saving transport energy and replacement waste, while cutting noise up to 50%.
Source: lehighvalleyplastics.com
400%
Pulleys made from performance plastics are 7-8x lighter than steel, corrosion resistant, reduce noise and can extend the cable life of units up to 400%.
Source: lehighvalleyplastics.com
Nylon sheaves deliver a strong strength-to-weight profile for material handling:
¼ Weight
Of steel
4,000 psi
Load-bearing capability
15,000 psi
Compressive strength
Source: redwoodplastics.com
200x
Polycarbonate is 30x stronger than acrylic and more than 200x stronger than glass, yet weighs 6x less than glass — ideal for machine guards.
Source: piedmontplastics.com
Sand-Slurry Wear Tests
46%
Better service life than steel
In sand-slurry wear tests, performance plastics achieve a 46% better service life than steel. | Source: roechling.com
iapd
the performance plastics association
Sustainability
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