Recommended material for sliding application

[bsmet95]

My company processes A36 steel beams, cutting to length and drilling the webs and flanges. This is done with a programmable cutting/drilling machine. The beams are lying on their sides and being dragged thru the machine. The problem is that the slide bars are made of a semi-hard plastic, and the edges of the beams are gouging and slicing off ribbons of the plastic.

Is there any other material, such as 1045, 1141, etc. that would be good for sliding with little wear?

 

[TheTick]

Perhaps a veneer of spring steel?

 

[BillPSU]

Install roller infeed and outfeed tables.
At one time I saw a abrasive cutoff saw with a 5 foot diameter cutoff wheel and 50-100 hp drive motor cutting off 14" I-beams. The infeed and outfeed tables were roller tables.

Biggest hot saw I have ever seen.

Bill

 

[3DDave]

I agree - rollers are the way to go. For low ratios of metal to surface contact a plastic like HMWPE (high molecular weight polyethylene) is often better than metals, but is sounds like you have high-pressure, high ratio contact. By high ratio, I mean that for each foot of slide, you are passing many feet of beam over it. If you passing short pieces through, you may need to put a conveyer belt over the rollers.