This study investigates the influence of surface materials of a curved axis roller on web behavior using finite element analysis.Stress distribution and friction force vectors were analyzed for rubber and steel curved axis rollers under different wrap angle conditions.The results indicate that both surface material and wrap angle affect the contact state between the web and the roller.As the wrap angle increases, changes in contact length may alter frictional behavior, particularly in the machine direction and cross-machine direction.The rubber roller shows relatively moderated stress distributions, whereas the steel roller tends to exhibit friction behavior dominated by slip.These tendencies suggest that surface deformation and wrap angle may play important roles in web spreading behavior, although further experimental validation is required.In particular, changes in friction force vectors in the cross-machine direction may influence the persistence of spreadingrelated shear forces.The present numerical results provide qualitative insight into the interaction mechanisms between the web and curved axis rollers under transport conditions.
Yoshida et al. (Thu,) studied this question.