Menges Roller – a designer and manufacturer of precision industrial rollers for the plastics, paper and steel industries – is being recognized for using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to design better heat transfer rollers. The company has been awarded the 
AIMCAL (Association of International Metallizers, Coaters & Laminators) Technology of the Year Award. CFD Technology, which has traditionally been used by NASA and the medical sciences, is being utilized to eliminate the guesswork surrounding heat transfer rollers. 

Menges Roller company president Matt Menges was presented the award March 16 at the annual AIMCAL Management Meeting in Phoenix AZ, USA.  Menges says, “We are very pleased to win this award. My team has worked hard to perfect the use of this technology for our customers, so it’s great to see my peers recognize our good work.”

Menges Roller has steadily increased its presence in the field of liquid-filled double-shelled heat transfer rollers. The technology for which Menges won this award involves the use of high-tech computer models to simulate a rollers’ temperature and performance characteristics, which allows engineers to test different designs “virtually” while saving both time and money. Rollers designed using Menges’ CFD Thermal Modeling Technology are guaranteed to achieve the temperatures modeled in their computer simulations.

Heat transfer rollers are used to heat laminated substrates, cool recently-extruded plastics, and assist in the heating and cooling of various materials undergoing temperature-critical processes.

“Until recently, designing liquid-filled thermal rollers has been a very difficult task, especially if you need to achieve specific temperatures,” the company says. “Because the rollers are in rotary motion, speed and physical components must be considered. Because they can be filled with oil, water or glycol-based fluids, chemistry must be considered. And because the rollers are connected to pumps, heaters or chillers, design engineers must understand liquids and flowrates. All these factors can make it very difficult to calculate the proper dimensions and component sizes for thermal rollers.”