The guide roller which guides film movement in thin polymer film processing requires high bending rigidity for uniform film thickness, low rotational inertia for high rotational speed with fast stop and start without permanent deformation of the film by the inertia force of the roller, and wear resisting fine surface for the quality of film surface.
Although aluminum guide rollers are widely used currently for thin polymer film processing, they are not appropriate for high speed film processing because the rotational inertia of the aluminum roller cannot be decreased much without affecting the bending rigidity.
Since filamentary composite materials have high specific modulus(E/r), in this study, the guide roller was designed and manufactured with carbon fiber/epoxy composite. The rotational inertia and damping characteristics of the composite guide roller were compared theoretically and experimentally to those of the aluminum guide roller.
The surface of the composite guide roller was hard chromium electroplated to increase surface hardness and decrease surface roughness. Since the surface of the composite is not directly electroplated with chromium because of the low electrical conductivity of the carbon/epoxy composite, in this study, the surface of the composite guide roller was coated with conductive pastes. Then the electroplating conditions for the surface coated with conductive paste were determined experimentally.
