WEBANCOR Air Shafts are CAD/CAM designed and manufactured for specific qualities. The customer provides us with their requirements as outlined on the order sheet, and our computer system designs the shaft to be manufactured. The drawing is then produced and sent via fax, or email to the customers for approval.
BODIES:
Depending on the requirements, shaft bodies are made from tubes of steel, aluminum, or carbon fibre.Shafts are manufactured for cores from 1 ½” dia. to 12″ and larger if required. Metric sizes and specials can be accommodated. Normal body diameters are 1/16″ under the nominal core I.D., but with the Core industries increasing use of oversize I.D. cores larger body diameters are supplied as required. Before ordering a shaft it should be noted what I.D. cores are being used.Non paper cores usually have larger inside diameters than paper so should use a larger diameter body shaft.
JOURNALS:
The journals are machined from high strength, heat treated AISI 4140 or 4340 steels, and further hardened at wear points.
GRIPPERS:
- LUGS: WEBANCOR shafts use “Floating lugs” for the most part since they have superior grip in most applications. They don’t require retraction springs that will eventually fail and puncture the air bladder. The lug pattern varies for the application. I.E. the standard pattern is four row offset. This pattern is used for unwind and some rewind applications. If narrow cuts will be required on a rewind we use a six row offset lug pattern, and overlap lugs if necessary to give full coverage grip. The standard Lug is made from heat treated aluminum, helping keep the weight down. Steel lugs are available, usually used on paper converting machines when cores with steel end caps are used
- POLY LUGS: Poly lugs are available and recommended for use with metal and plastic cores. (metallic lugs do not grip metal cores well so tend to slip.) Poly lugs can also be used with fibre cores.
- BUTTONS: Buttons can be supplied for the applications that warrant them. Buttons require retraction springs, and are very labour intensive to repair. The lug shaft is usually a better alternative.
- LEAF: The main use for a leaf shaft is to hold THIN wall cores, since they have a full contact they will not “distort” the core as would a lug or button. They should not be required to act as a differential shaft, which is a specially designed shaft for a specific purpose. It should also be stressed that a leaf shaft can only hold cores with identical inside dimensions. If mixed sizes or recycled cores are used the leaf will grip the smaller I.D. cores but obviously cannot expand to the larger diameters which will then slip.
- AIR TUBE(BLADDER)SHAFT: WEBANCOR Air Shafts use a tried and true internal bladder and sleeve combination. This combination is the most reliable and generates the most grip from the available air pressure. The bladder and sleeve are made by us in our own factory from rubber that is specially compounded for us to be tough and resilient. The ends are sealed by our own design of aluminum end caps, which can be easily changed to a new bladder when required. WEBANCOR shafts have a sleeve over the bladder to protect it and also hold the lugs in place so they don’t require pinning up when the bladder is being replaced, making a bladder change quick and easy. WEBANCOR bladders can be changed much quicker and easier than some so called “cassette” repair systems, since only one journal has to removed not both. WEBANCOR manufactures bladders for other makes of shafts for our customers.
STRIP BLADDER SHAFTS:
Strip bladder shafts are available from WEBANCOR for the few applications that require them. The “selling” feature of this type of shaft is they are supposedly quick to repair without taking the shaft apart. Their main problems are that they require frequent repair, the small air chamber in each strip cannot generate much gripping power and rely on friction of the rubber strip against the core. The core I.D. must be close to shaft OD or the strip will tend to be ripped out of its slot. When this happens, it is difficult to get the roll off the shaft with the rubber strip jammed in between the core and the shaft body.They should only be considered for light duty applications.
VALVES:
#1641: For many years WEBANCOR shafts have only been available with the #1641 “Schrader type” valve, since it was the only type that would meet OSHA and IAPA requirements for use with compressed air over 35 psi. The #1641 valve cannot be deflated with the finger, it requires some sort of a tool which is the main problem since tools damage the top of the valve. The #1641 valve should be used with the #1815 inflator/deflator with a quick disconnect to remove it from the air line to deflate the shaft, allowing escaping air safely through the deflators body, and away from the operators skin. The WEBANCOR FG2000TV FLAG GAUGE INFLATOR is recommended.
#ST125-ST375 VALVES:This new series of push button valves meet safety requirements since they are “vented” which keeps escaping air from being injected into a finger when a finger is used to deflate a shaft. A tool is still recommended to release the air.
The button part is threaded onto the stem so that they will not fall apart as do the current push button valves on the market. They also have an internal O’ring around the stem to stop “blow-back” while filling. This feature allows higher pressure to be generated in the shaft with less effort. The WEBANCOR FG2000PB FLAG GAUGE INFLATOR is recommended.