Modern automation solutions, such as roller beds for heavy-duty cylindrical workpieces, significantly increase workplace safety and boost production efficiency. With today’s advanced roller bed technology, manufacturers can achieve the necessary efficiency and safety when handling containers, tubes, pipes, and wind towers during welding, painting, or assembly processes.
Roller beds are crucial when handling large cylindrical workpieces. Roller beds minimize the need for cranes and increase safety significantly.
Roller beds for heavy-duty cylindrical workpieces
Roller beds are the backbone of tank, pipe, and wind tower production. For manufacturers of large cylindrical workpieces, modern roller beds—also known as turning rolls—have revolutionized the production process, enabling greater efficiency and precision. These advanced systems come with several key features that offer significant advantages over traditional turning methods:
- Self-alignment: Automatically adjusts to varying diameters, ensuring perfect alignment.
- Stable positioning: Provides secure support for heavy workpieces, reducing movement and vibration.
- Quick and easy leveling: Minimizes setup time, allowing for faster turnaround.
- Wireless remote control: Enables operators to control the process from a safe distance, enhancing safety and convenience.
In conventional setups, turning heavy-duty cylindrical workpieces often requires the use of cranes, which can be time-consuming and increase the risk of accidents. Roller beds streamline this process, significantly reducing setup time while enhancing safety. As a result, they have become essential for the efficient production of towers, containers, tubes, pipes, and other heavy-duty cylindrical components.
The all-time classic roller bed, also for smaller workshops
PEMA N series consists of the classic roller bed solutions that are optimal for rotating and handling a variety of cylindrical work-pieces, such as tubes, pressure vessels, and tanks in automated welding. The 2-roller-drive roller beds are ideal for smaller welding shops, as they occupy very little space.
Depending on the length of the workpiece, the power unit can be combined with one or several idler units. In the N-series, roller distances are manually adjusted to accommodate varying work-piece diameters.
The load capacity for the PEMA N series varies from 800 and 1 000 tons.
The PEMA N-model is ideal for turning tubes, pressure vessels, and tanks.
Self-aligning roller beds, perfect also for thin-walled workpieces
Self-aligning roller beds are ideal for handling unbalanced, thin-walled, and/or heavy cylindrical workpieces. Pemamek’s PEMA A series roller beds provide even weight distribution, constant rotation speeds, and adaptability to a wide range of workpiece diameters without the need for separate adjustment.
When compared to the classic PEMA N-model, PEMA A-model has a double amount of wheels. Each wheel supports the workpiece and enables gentler and smoother turning. The four wheel-design provides also better roundness for big diameters even with thin materials.
All four axles of the drive unit are power-driven. The four-wheel drive provides excellent grip and accurate rotation characteristics even for very unbalanced workpieces. In PEMA A-series roller beds, roller bogies automatically adjust to align with the diameter of the handled workpiece. Compared with other roller bed types, PEMA A-type roller beds provide superior weight distribution. This is a significant advantage in handling thin-walled workpieces.
The load capacity for PEMA A series varies from 12 tons up to 800 tons.
PEMA A-model has a double amount of wheels which enable rotation and better roundness.
The four-wheel-design enables even weight distribution and more stable handling.
Benefits of polyurethane rollers
When compared to conventional steel roller beds, the polyurethane (PU) -coated wheels are far more gentle for the workpiece. The gentle, yet supporting, structure results in higher product quality and stable positioning.
PEMA Roller beds are equipped with top-class polyurethane rollers that are designed especially for heavy-duty use. Because of their narrow roller construction, PEMA PU-rollers are exceptionally versatile tools to use for workpieces with openings and reinforcements.
PU-roller weight capacity varies between 5-1,000 tons.
Customer story: Estanc increases efficiency with PEMA solutions
Estanc, a family-owned company based in Estonia, specializes in manufacturing products that contribute to a greener, more sustainable world. The partnership with Pemamek began nearly a decade ago when Estanc embarked on building its newest factory.
The initial delivery from Pemamek to Estanc featured the PEMA Assembly and Welding Station TW5000-80, a state-of-the-art solution designed for producing tubular and conical workpieces with exceptional quality. This setup included the PEMA HD 5×5 Column & Boom with an operator seat, along with PEMA A80 Roller Beds—ideal for handling heavy workpieces with automatic adjustments.
Since that first delivery, Estanc has continued to rely on Pemamek’s expertise, adding multiple sets of PEMA Roller Beds (including the A80 Idler, A80 2D, and A80 4D models) to support its expanding operations.
“We manufacture a lot of pressure vessels, shells, and tanks, and they need to be moved around a lot. That’s why PEMA roller beds for heavy workpieces are extremely crucial for us”, explains Tõnis Tuuder.
