Lubrication-free plastic ball bearings for the manufacture of latex products

Producers of latex gloves depend on durable and fault-free components in their machines to avoid downtime. The operating environment in glove manufacturing is considered to be harsh, with aggressive vapours and liquids, corrosive chemicals, high heat and humidity. The entire manufacturing process consists of three steps before the gloves are packaged and marketed:

1.) Dry cleaning and rinsing,
2.) Dipping and shaping and
3.) Treating and leaching.

Each gripper station can typically produce 3,000 gloves per hour. All gloves must be transported, removed from the formers and packaged without damage. The grippers consist of two parts to meet the mechanical and abrasive demands, with the secondary material offering greater resistance to the abrasive former and protection for the delicate gloves.

High-temperature ball bearings allowing the ceramic formers to rotate during drying.

Profiled ball bearings transport the formers from the vertical to the horizontal and drive the production line.

Grippers allow the latex gloves to be removed from the formers prior to packaging without damage.

Challenges in glove production

Manufacturing gloves is a complex process. Fabricators must be able to accurately characterise incoming raw materials. They also have to ensure that the formulations are correct so that end products perform as expected. In all areas, requirements for safety and compliance with regulations are becoming ever more stringent. Therefore, it is necessary to find solutions that help reduce manual-operator intervention, improve laboratory and plant productivity, reduce damage and increase the quality of the end product.

Advantages of our plastic ball bearings

✔️ Low abrasion
✔️ Less wear
✔️ No maintenance required
✔️ No leaking grease (contaminated talc)
✔️ Low friction
✔️ No corrosion
✔️ Less downtime and damage to gloves
✔️ Resistant to temperatures (for drying systems)