What is a Plastic Wear Strip?
A wear strip, sometimes referred to as a wear bar or wear plate, is a component used in various machinery and equipment to reduce friction, prevent damage, and extend the life of the machinery and components. It's typically made from a durable material like plastic or metal, and is placed in areas that experience frequent contact, rubbing, or abrasion. For example, roller chain in long lengths or section are supported by a Polystone Ultra Wear Strip to prevent the chain rubbing and damaging other equipment, as well as extending the life of the chain.
Benefits of Plastic Wear Strips
- Reduced Friction: The lower co-efficient of friction of plastics reduces wear between moving parts and drive forces and energy, compared to metal wear faces.
- Noise Reduction: The lower density and lower hardness, suppresses vibration and noise.
- Corrosion Resistance: Plastics can be resistant to certain chemicals and corrosion, making them suitable for use in environments where metal components might corrode.
- Lightweight: Compared to metal alternatives, plastic wear strips are often lighter, which can be beneficial in applications where weight is a concern.
- Cost-Effective: Plastic wear strips are generally more cost-effective than metal alternatives, both in terms of material costs and ease of manufacturing.
- Customizable: Plastics are more easily shaped, allowing for customization to fit specific shapes and sizes required for different applications.
- Maintenance Reduction: They can extend the life of equipment by protecting against wear, reducing the need for frequent replacements, maintenance and lubrication.
- Electrical Insulation: Plastics offer electrical insulation properties, making them suitable for use in electrical applications.
Dotmar has qualified engineers that can provide direct support with plastic wear strip designs, including conducting calculations.
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Flat Wear Strips
A simple wear strip acting as a low friction, good sliding interface that improves operation and minimises damage of product and surfaces.
Chain Guides
Specifically designed guide wear strips that guide and retain roller chain and link chain
Conveyor Chain Wear Strips
Made in both extruded and machined profile for conveying systems often used in the Food and Beverage industris.
Conveyor Impact Bars
Used in the mining and resource sectors, these wear strips protect over land conveyor belts in impact and loading zones.
Conveyor Chain Curves
Specially designed tracks, used mainly in the food, beverage and packaging sectors, to guide/track conveyor chain.
Extruded Profile
Manufactured in long lengths (10-30m) designed to be used as a clip on profile onto steel sections, such as flat bar, round bar etc
Wear Strips are manufactured predominantly in UHMWPE (Polystone 7000, Polystone AST & Polystone Ultra), but in some cases due to very high loads, speeds or temperatures where UHMWPE is not suitable, other materials such as Ertalon LFX, Ertalyte or Ticomp S may be better suited.
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Load
The surface pressure (load / contact area) is critical in selecting a suitable material. Generally Polystone Ultra, Polystone 7000 or Polystone 7000 AST are the most material choices, with a surface pressure load capacity of 5-10 MPa.
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Temperature
The surrounding temperature (opposed to heat generated from friction) for both short- and long-term exposure is important, as materials can withstand higher temperatures for short term periods compared to long term or constant exposure, which in turn affect their load carrying capacity.
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Lubrication
Generally plastic wear strips are used to eliminate lubrication, but if the speeds are extreme, lubricants can help to improve operation and service life.
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Friction
Generally, most plastics offer a suitably low enough friction level for most applications, but for longer wear strips where the forces to drive a system may be influenced by the frictional drag, this may need to be considered.
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Regulatory Requirements
Does the application have regulatory requirements such as food contact, drinking water, anti-static or flame retardant. The food industry may also require materials to be metal detectable, x-ray detectable and/or visually detectable by being coloured blue.
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Other considerations
At times there may be other considerations such as chemical resistance and dimensional stability. Apart from material selection, dimensional stability can also be addressed via appropriate design of the wear strip.
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