Swiss can seamer manufacturer Ferrum is introducing a new generation of seaming rolls. The “Easy Rider” seaming roll is easy to handle, has an extremely long service life and no loss of oil, the company says. It lives up to the known Swiss quality standards and is nearly ready for the market.
Günter Hell, who directs the spare part service, helped develop a central can seamer component: the Easy Rider seaming roll. “Ferrum has thoroughly field-tested the new seaming roll,” Hell says.
“The Easy Rider was utilized on the complete range of machines with various processing products,” he explains.
Easy Rider prototypes were installed in Ferrum machines in Spain and the Netherlands and tested intensively. Now the Easy Rider that loses no oil is ready to go into serial production.
Less friction surfaces in the center of the seaming roll means that the roll runs with less torque — therefore the name Easy Rider. The new tapered roller bearing with a pretension optimized to the applied forces makes the seaming roll free of play. “With Easy Rider, we achieve even better seam results,” Hell says.
Once the Easy Rider has been assembled by a technician, it is maintenance-free, Ferrum says. It does not need to be readjusted and maintained. The assembly functions by one bolt depending on whether it is with or without thread.
Easy Rider also is suited for sealing steel as well as aluminium ends. The stable rotation ensures a high service life: “On conventional tapered roller bearings, the play needs to be adjusted and the roll moves during the seaming,” the company says. An Easy Rider stellite seaming roll with ceramic bearing and coating is able to seal about 70 million cans. The conventional seaming roll, with tapered roller bearing, can achieve about 35 million.
Easy Rider has been tested by the Bavaria Brewery, Netherlands. Hans van Vijfeijken, production manager, is responsible for the entire process at Bavaria and has initiated several Ferrum pilot projects. Since 2009, Bavaria has tested the latest generation of the Easy Rider on a Ferrum can seamer. Bavaria answered some questions about its application of Easy Rider, and the following details the exchange:
Ferrum:The seaming rolls have sealed over 30 million cans. Are you satisfied with the new Easy Rider?
Bavaria:Yes, we are satisfied. Till now, we’ve had no malfunctions or problems with Easy Rider.
Ferrum:Where do you see the advantages of Easy Rider?
Bavaria:Most important for me is the long service life ... With that, I also mean that no oil leaks out; that the seaming roll is sealed. That is a matter of course for me and is the proof for the long service life. The down times of our machine could be reduced further thanks to Easy Rider.
Ferrum:How did the development of the Easy Rider go since the product’s introduction, from the customer’s point of view?
Bavaria:At first there was a small problem with the first Easy Rider generation. After some modifications, the problem was solved. Besides that we hardly have any downtime with Ferrum seamers.
