- Roller of OMNI table tennis ball machine made with BASF’s Elastollan® Soft 45 A P
- Elastollan provides excellent wear resistance, which reduces the frequency of changing rollers
Shanghai, China – 19 May 2022 – The roller of the OMNI table tennis ball machine (OMNI) by Future Mind is now made with BASF’s Elastollan® Soft 45 A P. Elastollan’s excellent wear-, abrasion-, impact-, and tear-resistance reduces the frequency of changing the OMNI’s rollers.
“OMNI’s ball speed is 2-15 m/s. Its ball rotation is 0-100 revolutions/sec, and the ball frequency is 30-90 balls/min. The roller is also in contact with the table tennis ball. As such, the roller can wear out quickly,” said Zhang Haibo, Chief Executive Officer, Future Mind. “With this challenge in mind, we collaborated with BASF to develop a heavy-duty roller that could better withstand the constant and forceful contact between the ball and roller. This in turn, would help our customers reduce the machine’s maintenance cost.”
Elastollan Soft 45 A P is a transparent polyester-polyurethane elastomer. The high-performance material solution possesses good oil- and grease-resistance. It is also easy to process by injection molding.
“The Elastollan grade used for the roller has typically been used for shoe applications partly owing to its good damping behavior and good elastic recovery with resistance over a wide range of temperatures. As these same mechanical properties are beneficial for the roller application, we collaborated with Future Mind and optimized it for the specific requirements for use in the roller application,” said Marilyn Lye, Vice President, Business Management Industrial, Performance Materials Asia Pacific, BASF.