Kalexite

One of KV Rollers' most exciting next-generation polymer developments is Kalexite. A ground-breaking roller coating already revolutionising safety standards within the packaging and print industry.

Kalexite has potential for a multitude of uses. These include printing, mechanical handling, and film packaging-based applications. In fact, we believe Kalexite will become the next generation of multi-purpose, multifunctional rubber compounds.

With print, paper and packaging rollers operating at greater speeds, possibly in conjunction with static generating substrates, the risk of VOC ignition due to sparking, and of subsequent factory fires within this industry sector, has become significantly elevated.

Kalexite's superior anti-static properties reduce the risk of sparking and subsequent ignition. KV Rollers' Kalexite based roll coatings have already been adopted by several widely known industry giants.

As well as being a potential boon to safety, Kalexite is proving its worth in performance quality and longevity too. These features can in turn positively impact manufacturing costs and profit margins.

Kalexite was the end result of many hundreds of laboratory and production related man-hours. It is an exemplary example of KV Rollers' ability to reverse engineer and create precisely formulated solutions for our clients technically advanced applications.

In developing Kalexite, KV Rollers technologists selected a recently introduced grade of base polymer to formulate a material in compliance with the Eltex GNN75 specification. This requirement demands a non-black/non-marking single layer conductive sleeve system, with a hardness spec of 80-85 shore (A scale), exhibiting a corresponding surface conductivity of 10 - 30 mega ohms at 120 volts.

Achieving these targets took numerous formulatory evolutions. Attaining the required electrical specification within the framework of a manufacturing-friendly, financially viable product proved challenging. As the maximum possible electrical conductivity of the base polymer was required, blending with any quantities of nonconductive additives was deemed unacceptable.

High-hardness traditionally implies higher filler and curative loadings and an associated increase in material sg. These factors work to diminish a polymer compound's electrical viability whilst also acting to increase the overall weight of the final product.

Added to these concerns, Kalexite needed to be unusually resilient, as it was expected to perform faultlessly in both mechanical and chemically arduous environments.

Navigating these, and other design obstacles, in search of an optimum product solution, proved a worthy challenge. In Kalexite we are confident we have created a material whose feature set complies with our customer requirements. Additionally, this prolonged design process enabled KV Rollers' technologists to gain a wealth of new knowledge for use within, this and, other exciting fields.

We believe this product will, in time, become the standard and dominant solution for many demanding applications.