MECA Solutions produces efficient vacuum rollers that minimize web contact

Use vacuum pull rolls to create safe web tension isolation

The last thing coaters and converters want from their operations is for equipment to contact the web and ruin a fragile surface or carefully applied coating. Vacuum rolls play a key role in ensuring nothing touches the sensitive side of a web until it is ready for winding.

MECA Solutions manufactures vacuum tension rolls (VTR) that leverage elements of physics in transporting a web by touching only one side of the substrate. The most common use for vacuum rolls is transporting a web immediately after a coating is applied.

Vacuum rolls work by creating internal vacuum pressure and then using external atmospheric pressure to hold the web to the roll. Working with the vacuum pressure the natural coefficient of friction between the web and the surface of vacuum rolls generates necessary pull force. Tension differentials of several PLI can be achieved.

Vacuum rollers provide stability through the drying stage

Vacuum rollers can be direct drive or belt-driven, providing converters and flexographic printers with the flexibility to use these niche products in very specific locations within their operations until coatings are dry. For sensitive webs MECA Solutions’ vacuum rollers can include a fine mesh screen placed over the roll surface to protect the web.

A typical application for vacuum rollers would be to isolate a low tension zone while passing a web through a dryer. While air currents typically float a web through tension zones such as an oven, idler rolls also may be used to provide minimal support.

If you are looking for exceptional efficiency properties that enable smoothly functioning web operations for a wide range of substrates then MECA Solutions’s vacuum rolls should be on your presses.

About MECA Solutions

MECA Solutions is North America’s premier manufacturer of high-precision cylindrical products for the printing and web handling industries. Included in MECA’s product offering are flexographic print sleeves, heat transfer rolls, carry rolls, mandrels, coating rolls and other specialty roller products. MECA utilizes a variety of materials such as steel, aluminum, carbon fiber and other substrates to manufacture its precision products for the industrial printing, coating and web converting industries. 

For more information about MECA Solutions’ air actuated cylinders, contact Tom Kawula, product group manager; Phone 920-336-7382; email: sales@mecagb.com or visit https://www.mecagb.com/.

Source: MECA Solutions