Ball roller BUTM 25

Sometimes a rolling point just has to be bolted down and work. BUTM is a ball unit with a steel ball mounted on a steel plate with a ready-made hole pattern; you drill to the dimensions of the plate, tighten the bolts and have a load-bearing ball point in place. No press fit and no tight hole tolerances, and if the station has to be rebuilt you move the unit in a couple of minutes.

The basic rule for all ball units is the same: the goods must always rest on at least three balls. Start from the smallest base dimension of the goods when you decide the spacing between the units, and then check that the load spread across the balls that actually carry stays below the load capacity per unit. Leave yourself a margin; a crate set down at an angle loads the first ball harder than the average, and it is that impact that decides service life.

Bolt mounting makes this model the standard choice when balls are going onto steel frames, work benches or machine frames. In Swedish industry they turn up at infeed tables, as turning points in packing lines, on the inspection bench in goods reception and in assembly stations where parts are pushed between operations instead of lifted. If the flow has to change, the units are unbolted and set up in the new layout; that reuse is one of the points of plate mounting.

Placement follows the same logic as the rest of the layout. On straight runs the units sit in rows with even spacing; at turning points the pattern gets tighter so the goods always have support all the way through the turn. Sketch the hole pattern on paper or in CAD before you drill, it takes ten minutes and saves you drilling twice. And do not forget to check that the base is flat; a skewed beam gives you balls that carry nothing and goods that pull to one side.

Choosing between plate and stem mounting is simple: stem when the ball is going into a sheet that has to be cut anyway, plate mounting when you are building on existing tables, frames and stands without major work. The plate also spreads the load over a larger area, which is kind to thinner table tops.

With no motor and no power, the running cost is close to zero. What is left is simple care: keep the balls free of chips, dust and packaging debris and the rolling resistance stays low. The goods need a flat and stiff surface to rest on; boxes with a soft bottom or parts with grooves underneath roll worse and can catch. Dry indoor air is home ground for the steel ball, so check wet or corrosive environments with us first.

Full dimension drawings, material data and mounting instructions are in the manufacturer data sheet. The series covers several sizes with rising load capacity, and mixing sizes in the same station works fine if the load cases differ between positions; the hole patterns are small and easy to place close together where you need them.

The plate measures 50x69 mm and is made from 1.2 mm sheet steel. The bolt holes have a diameter of 5 mm and sit at 56 mm center distance. From the base to the top of the ball the overall height is 31 mm, and the outer diameter of the ball housing is 42 mm. The manufacturer states a load capacity of 25 kg per unit at 4 km/h. The temperature range runs from -30 °C to +70 °C, so the unit works just as well in a cold store as in a hot summer workshop, and the net weight is 0.14 kg.

Not sure which size suits your station? We are happy to help you pick the right one.