Argonics’ engineers spent more than a year designing and testing its new Load Zone impact bar, according to the company. The result is a bar that is 241 percent stronger with twice the wear life of Argonics’ previous impact bar.
The new impact bars are manufactured with three enhanced layers of material that are designed for maximum energy absorption, reduced rebound and increased wear life.
A ¾-in.-thick layer of Ultra-High-Molecular-Weight (UHMW) polyethylene tops specifically formulated, energy-absorbing polyurethane. These layers are secured to a completely reengineered extruded aluminum insert that provides dramatically better support.
According to Bob Welker, director of business development for Argonics, “The most critical area in bulk material handling is impact zones where material is dropped, conveyed or transferred.
The force of impact can create not only a significant safety issue, but it can lead to damage to material handling equipment – damaged belts, bent frames or material spillage. Our new bars are engineered to be 241 percent stronger, helping to eliminate this damage and the downtime that results from it.”
Force and bounce testing prove better safeguarding of equipment and less fugitive material.
Argonics’ engineers subjected the standard rubber bar, the existing Load Zone bar with the hollow core, as well as 12 different prototype designs to rigorous testing until they were able to create a new bar that was substantially stronger, had less rebound and still had the ability to absorb the impact of some of the largest conveyed material.
Extensive simulations proved that by increasing the thickness of the UHMW in combination with creating compression relief channels along the sides of the urethane, energy absorption and performance was significantly improved.
Deflection Testing and Analysis Using extensive testing and simulations along with beam calculations, the new design demonstrates significant improvement in deflection over the original bar.
Applying 150 lb. of force upon a length of 72 in. proved that the new impact bar design deflects the load by 0.56-in. versus 1.91-in. deflected by the original design, demonstrating a 241 percent improvement over the original design in the deflection simulation test.
Bounce Test
Bouncing of bulk material due to height of dropping can create significant safety and spillage problems. A simulation test was conducted using 14,000 lb. of load force to compare the rebound height, or bounce, of average impact bars, and the current and new designs of Argonics impact bars.
The results clearly demonstrate that the new design of Argonics impact bars exceeds anything available in the market, according to the company.
Argonics Inc., www.argonics.com