Quadrant Epp's Tivar® Dryslide Chute Cladding Gets DHL Out of a Sticky Problem
Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene's very low friction helps keep packages moving at DHL hubs in the US and in Europe
(Reading, PA, August, 2007) - Cladding in low-friction ultra-high molecular weight polyethyl-ene has solved movement problems on package transport chutes at international express cou-rier company DHL's sorting centers in the USA and in Europe. TIVAR® DrySlide UHMW-PE is produced by Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products (Quadrant EPP), which also took care of retrofitting many of the chutes.
DHL initially had the chutes installed in its hubs at Wilmington, Ohio airport (ILN) and at the East Midlands airport (EMA) near Nottingham in England. DHL decided to use TIVAR® DrySlide be-cause packages often got stuck on its original unlined metallic chutes, especially when going around right-angled corners. Alternative solutions the company tested, including PTFE, wore off quickly because of their poor abrasion resistance. DHL had also been lubricating the chutes by spraying them with silicon or graphite, but was looking for a more environment-friendly solution that would not contaminate the parcels, nor require ongoing maintenance, cleaning and down-time.
"We at DHL ILN save thousands of dollars each month in reduced manning needs from pack-age jams, material costs, operational run time and reduced customer damage," says Daniel Schlake, a senior project manager with DHL US. "This is thanks to the improved package flow on the miles of conveyors, chutes and slides lined with Quadrant EPP's TIVAR® DrySlide used to move DHL customer packages. Even damp boxes and parcels covered in shrink-wrap now move freely."
Following the positive experience DHL enjoyed at ILN and EMA, Quadrant EPP has also in-stalled a trial chute in the DHL hub at Brussels airport. "The people from DHL Belgium had tested lot of potentially promising materials without positive results in the past. They were very sceptical when we first presented TIVAR® DrySlide, despite the positive US and UK experi-ences," says Jan Van Ysacker, sales engineer for Quadrant EPP in Belgium.
"So we suggested we install one critical chute, with a 90 degree corner, as a practical test. Su-pervisors say the effect of the material could be noticed from the first night in operation." In the meantime, he says, DHL has tested the material in other critical positions with similarly positive results.
Cladding of the chutes (new installations and retrofits) is normally done by specialist companies, using sheets of TIVAR® DrySlide produced by Quadrant. For the Brussels airport trial, Quadrant EPP installed the cladding itself, cutting the sheets to size, and simply drilling fixing holes to fix them in place on the chute. For European customers, Quadrant EPP produces sheets between 6 and 50 mm thick in dimensions of 1 by 2 meters at its plant in Vreden, Germany.
With immediate results, no drop-off in performance over time and no maintenance require-ments, DHL Belgium is now convinced by Quadrant EPP's TIVAR® DrySlide solution. Other critically-shaped chutes should shortly be equipped. For the hubs at ILN in the US and EMA in England, the installation of the TIVAR® DrySlide has already become a systematic requirement when installing new chutes.
Although TIVAR® DrySlide is a plastic; it has electrostatic dissipation properties, so it works well in dusty environments. It has a high abrasion resistance, a high impact resistance and it also helps reduce noise. There are no wet lubricants to mar packages (dry lubricants are incorpo-rated into the sheet during production to give it a 0.08 coefficient of friction, the lowest of any of Quadrant EPP's TIVAR® PE-UHMW products), and the material does not corrode or degrade in any way. It is very hard (Shore D 60), moisture absorption is virtually zero, which is key for this application, and the material is stabilized against UV radiation.
About Quadrant EPP
Quadrant EPP's products range from UHMW polyethylene, nylon and acetal to ultra-high per-formance polymers that resist temperatures to over 800°F (425°C). The company's products are used for machined parts in food processing and packaging, semiconductor manufacturing, aero-space, electronics, chemical processing, life sciences, power generation and diverse industrial equipment. Quadrant EPP's products are supported by a global team of application development and technical service engineers.
Full support in evaluating designs and machining of parts is available from Quadrant Engineering Plastic Products' Technical Support Group. Learn more about Quadrant at www.quadrantplastics.com.
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