Wear Strips under Chain Conveyors
(Vescolene Ultrablack)

Numerous chain conveyors are used in saw mills. VescoPlastics has on many occasions supplied Vescolene Ultrablack wear strips for chain conveyors with great success. Two examples are given here.

The log edger infeed is a chain driven conveyor carrying logs to the log edger. Previously a steel wear strip was used which required regular greasing. Drag and resistance on the chain was experienced, causing the chain to wear.

After replacing the steel wear strip with low friction, abrasion resistant Vescolene Ultrablack wear strip (8000 mm long x 40 mm wide - 10 mm thick)(315" long x 1.5" wide - 0.4" thick), the mill experienced negligible wear on the wear strip or the chain over five years. The Vescolene Ultrablack conversion has also reduced the resistance and drag of the chain to a minimum and far less lubrication is required.

Cross chain conveyors carry timber from one framesaw to the next. Previously, steel wear strips were used and had to be replaced regularly. On account of the high friction, chain linkages used to break frequently, leading to downtime.

Vescolene Ultrablack low friction wear strips have proved a substantial improvement on the steel wear strips. Lubrication in this application is not possible. By reducing the chain conveyor friction, no further breakages of the chains has been experienced. After one year of operation, the wear on the chain links and of the wear strips is negligible.

In summary, the change to Vescolene Ultrablack wear strips instead of steel have led to the following benefits:

• Dramatically reduced wear of conveyor chains
• Low friction Vescolene Ultrablack against metal contact replacing metal to metal contact which is characterised by high friction and high wear
• Conveyor chain breakages largely eliminated, saving repair costs and reducing downtime
• Reduces and eliminates need for lubrication

Updated May 03 2002