Pretty much everyone has held products in their hands that were manufactured on machines from JHT Jakobs-Houben Technologie GmbH in Geilenkirchen. Whether it's transparent adhesive tape for domestic use or wet-adhesive packaging tape for a large online mail order company - it's highly likely that the products were produced on JHT systems. The coating and converting specialist works from ‘reel-to-reel’. This involves unwinding a web-shaped material (paper, film, textiles, etc.), coating it, drying it and then rolling it up again. The company has now developed a 3D-printed vacuum roller for special fields of application, which is used where webs of material that are wet on one side need to be transported.

In order to optimise this process and open it up to as many fields of application as possible, the company worked with two cooperation partners to develop a roller with internal channels that are optimised for cooling and vacuum functions. This is important in order to be able to process wet-coated webs even more precisely. ‘Our innovative roller has a separate supply line for each vacuum zone. This can be controlled from the outside so that the vacuum can be built up exactly where it is needed. As a result, this means flawless coating, sensitive transport of the web and significantly increased energy efficiency,’ says JHT Managing Director Alexander Houben. The vacuum ensures that the web adheres better to the roller and safe transport can be guaranteed. If heat or cold is required for this, this is also not a problem, as the roller can be temperature-controlled.

Due to the complex roller geometry, which can only be produced using 3D printing, JHT was looking for an industrial supplier for 3D-printed metal parts. At the end of 2021, Alexander Houben turned to the NRW.Europa team at ZENIT, with whom he has been working on and off for many years.

„Das NRW.Europa-Team hat uns nicht nur mit JHT zusammengebracht, sondern vor dem Projektstart auch dafür gesorgt, dass wir genau wussten, welche Erwartungen JHT hatte.“
Maarten van Dijk, Direktor Additive Center

„Das NRW.Europa-Team hat ein phantastisches Netzwerk, über das wir einen professionellen Produktionspartner für unsere innovativen 3D-gedruckten Walzen gefunden haben. Mit ZENIT arbeiten wir bereits seit mehr als 20 Jahren sehr gut zusammen und freuen uns schon jetzt auf viele weitere spannende Projekte.“
Alexander Houben, Geschäftsführer JHT Jakobs-Houben Technologie GmbH

The JHT managers took the roller with them to ICE Europe in Munich in March 2023, the world's leading trade fair for the processing and finishing of flexible, web-shaped materials such as paper, film, foil and textiles. Geilenkirchen is now sounding out specific application enquiries from interested customers and knows that it has the right partner in the Additive Centre to meet demand and quickly transfer ideas to industrial production.

Link to the video on our YouTube channel:  
The NRW.Europa team found the cooperation partner for the 3D-printed vacuum roller from JHT in the Netherlands. The successful cross-border co-operation is described in a video entitled:
Access2Partners - When the white sheet of paper becomes more: JHT develops 3D-printed vacuum roll (.mp4).

Contact the NRW.Europa team:

ZENIT GmbH / Enterprise Europe Network
for North Rhine-Westphalia NRW.Europa
Rim Stroeks (has left the team), please contact: Benno.Weissner@zenit.eu
Phone: ++49 208 30004-59

Contact to the two companies:

JHT Jakobs-Houben Technologie GmbH, Geilenkirchen
www.jht.eu

Additive Centre, Eindhoven
www.additivecenter.com