Easy Rider: The seaming roll of the future is ready for operation

Ferrum is introducing a new generation of seaming rolls to the market. The "Easy Rider" seaming roll is easy to handle, has an extremely long service life and looses absolutely no oil. It lives up to the known Swiss quality standards and is about ready for the market.

Günter Hell can pride himself to have helped develop a central can seamer component, which will go on sale soon: the "Easy Rider" seaming roll. "Ferrum has thoroughly field-tested the new seaming roll." said Günter Hell, who directs the spare part service in the Canning technology division.

Seaming roll thoroughly tested for years
Hell explained, "The Easy Rider was utilised on the complete range of machines with various processing products." "Easy Rider" prototypes were installed in Ferrum machines in Spain and Netherlands and tested intensively. Now the "Easy Rider" that looses no oil is ready to go into serial production.

Frictionless and without play
Less friction surfaces in the centre of the seaming roll means that the roll runs with less torque - therefore the name "Easy Rider". The new tapered roller bearing with a pretension optimised to the applied forces makes the seaming roll free of play. Günter Hell explains further: "With Easy Rider, we achieve even better seam results when sealing the can."

No maintenance, no readjustment
Once the "Easy Rider" seaming roll has been assembled by a Ferrum technician, it is completely maintenance-free. The seaming roll needs to be neither readjusted nor maintained. The assembly functions as in the past by one bolt; depending on the type with or without thread (with grease or oil lubrication).

"Easy Rider" can output 70 million cans
"Easy Rider" is suited for sealing steel as well as aluminium ends. Hell said, "Depending, there is a version with ceramic or gold-coloured titanium nitride coating." The stable rotation also ensures a high service life: "On conventional tapered roller bearings, the play needs to be adjusted and the roll moves during the seaming." An Easy Rider stellite seaming roll with ceramic bearing and coating can seal about 70 million cans. For comparison: The conventional seaming roll, with tapered roller bearing, can achieve around 35 million – that is about half.

Seal for demanding customers
"New cleaning agents that affect the seals and demanding customers that do not want to see any more drops of oil pressured us to look for a new seal." said Hell.

The double-seam principle
The seaming roll is included with the core seaming equipment that is needed for air-tight sealing of cans. Cans are closed normally in two steps. Each seaming roll is responsible for one step. The first seaming roll (1st operation) produces a 1st OP seam, while the second seaming roll seals the can completely with a 2nd operation .



Tested by the Bavaria brewery
Hans van Vijfeijken

Hans van Vijfeijken is responsible as production manager for the entire process, from the raw supplies to the shipping at Bavaria. Having worked for 26 years for the Dutch brewery, he has initiated several Ferrum pilot projects. Since 2009, Bavaria tests the latest generation of the "Easy Rider" seaming rolls on a Ferrum can seamer.

The "Easy Rider" seaming rolls have sealed over 30 million cans. Are you satisfied with the new seaming rolls?
Yes, we are quite satisfied. Till now, we've had no malfunctions or problems with "Easy Rider".

Where do you see, in brief, the advantages of "Easy Rider"?
Most important for me as a customer is the long service life of the "Easy Rider" seaming rolls. With that, I also mean that no oil leaks out; that the seaming roll is sealed. That is a matter of course for me and is the proof for the long service life. The down times of our machine could be reduced further thanks to "Easy Rider".

Why did Bavaria made itself available for the "Easy Rider" project?
We go back a long way with Ferrum. We always have kept in close contact. 35 years ago, Ferrum installed its first high-performance seamer at Bavaria. When I participated in a schooling at Ferrum about six years ago, we got to talking about the newly developed seaming rolls. I suggested that Ferrum should try testing the seaming rolls in our company. We kind of see ourselves as a "test company" of Ferrum's.

How did the development of the "Easy Rider" go since, from the customer's point of view?
At first, there was a small problem with the first "Easy Rider" generation. After some modifications and improvements, the problem was solved. Besides that, we hardly have any downtimes anyway with Ferrum seamers. For 35 years now, the same Ferrum technician maintains our can seamers. Ferrum and Bavaria are both family-owned companies. Maybe that is the reason for the good cooperation.

Exhibitor Data Sheet