Polyurethane Screen Panel often abbreviated as PU, is a versatile class of polymers or plastics that finds widespread applications across various industries due to its remarkable properties. One of its many applications includes the manufacturing of polyurethane screen panels, which are essential components in the mining, aggregate, and recycling industries. These panels are used for screening, separating, and sizing different materials, offering several advantages over traditional screening materials such as wire mesh and steel. This essay delves into the composition of polyurethane, the manufacturing process of polyurethane screen panels, their properties, advantages, applications, and a brief comparison with other screening materials.
Composition and Manufacturing Process
Polyurethane is a polymer composed of organic units joined by carbamate (urethane) links. The versatility of polyurethane comes from the process of polymerization, where diisocyanates react with polyols in the presence of catalysts and other additives. This chemical reaction creates a polymer network that can be engineered to exhibit a wide range of physical properties, tailored to specific applications.
The manufacturing of polyurethane screen panels involves several key steps. Initially, the raw materials—polyol and diisocyanate—are mixed under controlled conditions, with catalysts and additives included to achieve the desired properties such as hardness, elasticity, and resistance to wear and tear. This mixture is then poured into molds that define the shape and size of the screen panels. Following this, the mixture undergoes a curing process where it transforms into a solid elastomeric material. The panels are then removed from the molds and subjected to post-curing processes, if necessary, to further enhance their properties.
Properties
Polyurethane screen panels exhibit a unique set of properties that make them highly desirable for screening applications:
Durability and Wear Resistance: Polyurethane is significantly more resistant to wear, abrasion, and tearing than traditional materials. This ensures a longer service life, even under harsh screening conditions.
Flexibility: The inherent flexibility of polyurethane allows the screen panels to absorb impact and reduce noise, making them suitable for applications requiring vibration reduction.
Chemical Resistance: These panels are resistant to various chemicals, oils, and water, making them ideal for use in environments where exposure to such substances is common.
Temperature Resistance: Polyurethane maintains its properties over a wide range of temperatures, which is critical for screening processes that may involve hot or cold materials.
Customizability: The versatility of polyurethane chemistry allows for the panels to be customized in terms of hardness, size, shape, and surface texture to meet specific screening requirements.
Advantages
Polyurethane screen panels offer several advantages over traditional screening materials:
Increased Efficiency: The flexibility of polyurethane panels reduces blinding and plugging, allowing for more efficient screening and separation of materials.
Reduced Downtime: Their durability and wear resistance lead to less frequent replacements, thereby reducing downtime and maintenance costs.
Energy Savings: The lightweight nature of polyurethane contributes to reduced energy consumption in screening operations.
Improved Safety: These panels are safer to handle and install due to their lightweight and reduced noise levels during operation.
Environmental Impact: The longevity and recyclability of polyurethane screen panels contribute to a lower environmental impact compared to single-use or less durable materials.
Applications
Polyurethane screen panels are used in a wide range of screening applications, including:
Mining and Quarrying: For the separation of minerals and aggregates.
Recycling: In sorting facilities to separate materials for recycling.
Agriculture: For cleaning and sorting grains, seeds, and other agricultural products.
Chemical Industry: In the separation of chemicals and powders.
Food Processing: For the sanitary screening of food products.
Comparison with Other Screening Materials
Long service life with a great carrying capacity of metal screens.
The polyurethane elastic sieve plate adopts steel rope as the skeleton materials, coupled with the fact that polyurethane itself has a high elastic modulus, high strength absorption impact and high wear resistance, so it has a high tensile strength, whose carrying capacity is more than 2.5 times that of rubber sieve plate. Its service lifetime is 8-10 times higher than that of an ordinary metal sieve plate, 3 times that of heavy duty stainless steel screen and 3.9 times that of natural rubber, which is now the most wear-resistant screen material in the world. The product material of the polyurethane screen is a polymer organic elastomer, which has excellent wear resistance, flex resistance and carrying capacity. The production raw materials are specially treated to ensure that they won’t delaminate under long-term alternating loads.
High screening efficiency
The internal side of the sieve plate has self-cleaning performance with high screening efficiency while not blocking holes. Due to the strong water permeability of polyurethane screen mesh and the large cone angle of the sieve hole (140°), it can effectively prevent the adhesion of wet fine particles. Thus it fits for screening and grading wet fine particles and materials. Anpeng polyurethane screen adopts imported raw materials, and its elastomer and its own good tension performance can help effectively avoid blocking holes under dynamic conditions.
Wide scope of application with strong professional adaptability of metal screens.
Polyurethane screens are professionally applied in hydropower stations, building materials and other metal beneficiation industries. The screening of various materials in the range of 0.1mm-170mm, whether dry sieve or wet sieve, does not affect the screening efficiency. Dehydration and deselection in the range of 0.5m-3mm, more fully show the superiority of polyurethane screen surface. The product is water-resistant, corrosion-resistant, aging-resistant, easy to replace and maintain. Polyurethane mesh density is small (1.32kg/m3), lighter than metal screen surface, can reduce production unit consumption, so it can adapt to the large-scale development requirements of the sieve machines.
High screening accuracy of metal screens.
The production craftwork of polyurethane screen adopts the method of mold casting molding with accurate pore size and high screening quality, and the particle size of the material screened from it can greatly meet the users’ requirements. With simple installation and is easy to replace and overhaul, the product made by our wire mesh screen company fits for any type of screening machine, and the workload of on-the-spot installation, replacement or maintenance is largely reduced due to its lightweight.
In line with national specifications of environmental noise standards.
According to the actual measurement, instead of using a metal sieve plate, the same screening machine which uses a polyurethane screen can reduce noise by 5-20 decibels. At the same time, it can significantly reduce dust flying to provide a quiet and clean working environment for the production site.
In conclusion, polyurethane screen panels represent a significant advancement in screening technology. Their unique properties and advantages make them an indispensable tool in industries where efficient, durable, and versatile screening solutions are required. As technology advances, the development of new polyurethane formulations will further enhance the capabilities of these panels, ensuring their continued importance in industrial applications.
