Active Bearing for Vibration Damping of Roller Systems with Piezoelectric Actuators

To improve the efficiency of printing or coating processes for paper products the velocity of the web and the roller width can be increased. However, these measures cause deformations of the rollers, heating effects and streak print defects due to undesirable oscillations. The vibration characteristic is significant for the quality and efficiency of the printing or coating processes. Approved methods like balancing of the rollers and maximizing the bending stiffness have come to technical limits. This seems to be promising technology for further optimization of printing and coating machines. This paper describes an approach with piezoelectric actuators in a flexographic printing machine by introducing active elements in the bearings of a roller to compensate undesired bending vibrations. Similar active components for vibration damping have been introduced successfully in grinding and milling machines [1, 2].