Background:
After the failure of their previous turret braking system, a leading thermoplastics processing company contacted Hindon regarding the need for new fail-safe holding brakes for use on their paper converting machine. This new brake would need to engage in the event of machine failure to prevent the turret feeding the paper roll from moving and to work as a holding brake while the paper is being unwound on the machine.
The customer’s previous paper turret braking system (shown above) proved unreliable due to the brakes being undersized and insufficiently robust for the application.
Application Challenges:
- Evaluation of previous braking system to determine brake failure mode
- Retrofit solution to use existing hydraulics and mounting structure (if possible)
- Retrofit solution to design around dimensional constraints related to existing paper turret design and braking system mounting structure
Solution:
After understanding the customer’s braking system requirements, analyzing the failure of their previous braking system, and evaluating existing space constraints, Hindon designed a floating caliper disc braking system to function as a fail-safe holding brake for the paper turret.
In order to accommodate the new braking system, which was capable of greater torque output than the previous system, Hindon supported the customer with a redesign of the brake mounting structure.
Hindon engineers use FEA to model braking forces imparted on support structure to ensure the brake mounting structure is sufficiently rigid to keep deflection within allowable limits
Hindon performed various finite element analysis (“FEA”) to model the deflection of the brake mounting stand during braking to ensure deflection was kept within acceptable parameters. After several iterations of brake mounting stand design informed by Hindon’s FEA modeling, the customer was able to modify their existing mounting stand to make it sufficiently rigid for use with Hindon’s new braking system.
After replacing their old hydraulic braking system with the one provided by Hindon, the customer has benefitted from a robust braking system that is holding their paper turret reliably shift after shift.
Testimonial
“I’m not trying to toot their horn, but when I got the brakes in they were almost over-engineered (in a good way). They are nice and solid for safety – exactly how you want them to look… [Hindon] went out of their way to help us out… [their] FEA simulates stresses on parts and we didn’t have that… we were concerned with forces and could only do hand calculations. [Hindon] did 3 or 4 iterations for us and they did not have to do that. They stand out in customer service.”
– Mechanical Engineer, Thermoplastics processing company