ED TouchlessClean
Touchless, inline roller surface cleaning The cleaning of roller surfaces is a major issue in film and sheet production. The more important function and appearance are, the more the roller surface is to the quality of the product. No matter how optimized a process is, the fact that the roller surface becomes contaminated more or less quickly as production continues cannot be prevented.
Or maybe it can?
Derichs Walzenmanufaktur GmbH from Viersen (formerly Derichs GmbH; Krefeld) has developed an inline, contactless cleaning process in collaboration with the Clausthal University of Technology and brought it to market together with PlasmaGreen GmbH, Clausthal-Zellerfeld (a start-up from the university). "We sell rollers with a wide variety of highly sophisticated surfaces. From engraved, matt to absolutely perfectly polished surfaces, all of are highly functional and also very expensive and complex to manufacture. For understandable reasons, our customers are very interested in preserving these surfaces for as long as possible, and producing therewith as efficiently as possible," explains Stephanie Holzmann, Managing Director of Derichs Walzenmanufaktur GmbH. "Nevertheless, depending on the process, almost all roller surfaces are cleaned on average about once a day for about an hour." The most conventional cleaning method is still cleaning by hand with cleaning rags or similar. In some cases, this even happens during production. Apart from the production downtime costs caused by cleaning (downtime or reject production), the risk of accidents for employees is immense.
Well-known cleaning systems available on the market are mainly contact-systems such as rags, brushes or scrapers as inline cleaning systems. These have the major disadvantage of being able to damage the roller surface through contact. In addition, the devices themselves become dirty, which reduces the cleaning effect. Offline, rollers can be cleaned e.g. using ultrasound or blasting with dry ice or other blasting materials. These processes often require a complex replacement of the rollers, but in any case always a system shutdown. When considering the total costs incurred for roller cleaning, the energy costs for maintaining the melt system should not be underestimated.
"All in all, a challenge that practically cries out for a technological solution," says Maria Barthels, Managing Director of Derichs Walzenmanufaktur GmbH. “Our product ED TouchlessClean uses a special, cold plasma and converts the contamination from the plastic melt and the environment through a chemical reaction into natural components of the ambient air such as H2O and CO2. This happens slowly but inline, i.e. continuously.” "The trick is to keep a clean roller permanently clean. In other words, to remove the contamination immediately after it occurs. In this way, the first nanolayers of contamination that form on the roller surface are cleaned off with each rotation without negatively affecting the process or the roller surface," explains Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Maus-Friedrichs, working-group manager at TU Clausthal and managing director of PlasmaGreen GmbH. "The process is extremely low-energy and can be individually adapted to the respective cleaning requirements using a specially developed, high-tech control system."
There is great interest in the product. The first series variants have been in use since 2024. "We are currently in contact with around 30 customers and interested parties," says Leif Girnth, project manager at Derichs Walzenmanufaktur GmbH for ED TouchlessClean roller surface cleaning. "Of course, this high technology has its price, but it is an investment in occupational safety and profit optimization, and we accompany our customers intensively through preliminary investigations and production tests so that they decide in favor of this new product with full conviction." An important reason for the decision is that the ROI is usually six to twelve months.
Derichs Walzenmanufaktur GmbH is presenting the ED TouchlessClean roller surface cleaning in Hall 6, Stand A250 at ICE Europe Munich.
