Menges Roller Wins Technology of the Year Award
Menges Roller wins AIMCAL 2014 Technology of the Year Award for innovations in “CFD Thermal Modeling for Heat Transfer Rollers”
Menges Roller – designer and manufacturer of precision industrial rollers for the plastics, paper and steel industries – is being recognized for using CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to design better heat transfer rollers.
Heat transfer rollers, also known as chill rollers, are a Menges specialty, and the Association of International Metallizers, Coaters & Laminators has awarded Menges its sole 2014 “Technology of the Year” Award.
Menges Roller, led by company president Matt Menges, was presented the award March 16 at the annual AIMCAL Management Meeting in Phoenix AZ.
“We are very pleased to win this award. My team has worked hard to perfect the use of this technology for our customers – so it’s great to see my peers recognize our good work,” he says.
Menges Roller has steadily increased its presence in the field of liquid-filled double-shelled heat transfer rollers.
- The technology for which Menges won this award involves the use of high-tech computer models to simulate a rollers’ temperature & performance characteristics – allowing engineers to test different designs “virtually.”
- This saves huge amounts of time and money, while making R & D results more reliable.
- Rollers designed using Menges’ CFD Thermal Modeling Technology are guaranteed to achieve the temperatures modeled in their computer simulations
- This brings a new level of “assurity” to industrial roller performance, taking the guesswork out of temperature control and thermal transfer calculations
Heat transfer rollers are used to heat laminated substrates, cool recently-extruded plastics, and assist in the heating & cooling of various materials undergoing temperature-critical processes – these rollers are very important components.
Until recently, designing liquid-filled thermal rollers has been a very difficult task – especially if you need to achieve specific temperatures. Because the rollers are in rotary motion, speed and physical components must be considered. Because they can be filled with oil, water or glycol-based fluids, chemistry must be considered. And because the rollers are connected to pumps, heaters or chillers, design engineers must understand liquids and flowrates. All these factors can make it very difficult to calculate the proper dimensions & component sizes for thermal rollers.
Plant managers and engineers have actually been known to simply “best guess” the size of heat transfer roller they need.
Now Menges Roller Co. is using computational fluid dynamics technology – which has traditionally been used by NASA and the medical sciences – to eliminate this guesswork.
Menges Engineers can generate models and images showing, for example “changes in temperature if the roll diameter is increased by 3 inches” and “the exact temperature variation across the rollface, given the use of 316 stainless steel at .578 inches,” company officials say. What will happen if the fluid flowrate is increased 20 percent? Menges can now generate accurate answers.
Menges Roller Co.
(847) 487-8877
AIMCAL
(803) 948-9471
(803) 948-9471
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