Why did you decide to further develop the tried-and-tested Faigle castor?

The new roller has been specially developed for high-performance parcel and baggage sorting systems. In order to protect employees, noise levels must be kept under control. However, the energy balance of a system is the main deciding factor when awarding a contract.

Achieving both goals at the same time proved to be a challenge, as they are contradictory: reducing roller resistance leads to lower energy costs. Energy-efficient castors therefore have to be rather hard, which comes at the expense of noise damping, while quiet-running castors tend to be soft, which increases resistance.

We solved the problem by decoupling the "rolling" and "damping" functions. The damping now takes place directly on the non-rotating roller axle. It therefore has no influence on the rolling resistance. The new castor has a reduced resistance of up to 60 percent. At the same time, the new castor concept makes it possible to create an appropriate working atmosphere.

Are there other advantages for the user?

Systems often stand still over the weekend - loaded or unloaded. The standstill can lead to the rollers becoming flat. In extreme cases, the sorting system will no longer start the next working day. The PAS-PU TCS material we have developed for the roller drum minimizes the compression set. During longer stops under load, the new intralogistics rollers flatten significantly less. This means that less force is required to start up the system. Individual customization to the customer's corporate design is also possible as an option.

What specifically tipped the scales for the development of the new castor concept?

The Faigle intralogistics roller. © Faigle

This was based on discussions with our customers and feedback from the sales department. The requirements were defined and specified in the form of a specification sheet. We then carried out rolling resistance measurements on our newly developed rolling resistance test bench with various materials, hardnesses and geometries. The aim of this phase was to better understand the influence of these factors on rolling resistance. Based on the knowledge gained, we developed a concept for an optimal roller design and optimized it in terms of strength using FEM analysis.

What other benefits can you draw from this for the future?

The data and results are also important for developments in other application areas, for example for products in the escalator, moving walkway, elevator and overhead conveyor categories.