/ By Kastalon / About Kastalon • Automation Industry • Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry • Marine Industry • Material Handling and Logistics • Metal Processing Industry • Millwork Industry • Mining Industry • Packaging Industry • Paper Coverting Industry • Plastics Industry • Press Releases • Printing Industry • Roller Sleeves • Steel Mill Industry • Wood Products Industry/ • / 0 Comments

New Summit Lathe Roll Grinder

July 2020, Kastalon has purchased and installed a new Summit roll lathe to further enhance our large roll manufacturing and repair capabilities. Kastalon now offers the most comprehensive roller services in the industry.

The Summit lathe/roll grinder allows Kastalon to not only machine metal, but to turn, mill, groove, and grind polyurethane and rubber covered rollers to ultra-precise diameters, geometric finishes, and straightness specifications. This CNC machine has a capacity of 48 inch finished diameters x 20 feet CC (1.22 x 6.1 meters) and almost 50,000 lbs with full CNC grooving. Simple to highly complex and precise grooves and finishes can be produced with this state-of-the-art equipment.

Kastalon’s roller capacity ranges from fractional diameters and face lengths to 62 inches in diameter x 30 feet overall length (1.57 x 9.1 meters). Kastalon’s polyurethane roll coverings are available from 20 Shore A to 75 Shore D (baby’s skin soft to bowling ball hard, and anywhere in between) with surface finishes and groove patterns to optimize your roller’s performance.

We’ve combined chemistry and mechanics just for you. Contact Kastalon today and bring the Kastalon’s advantage to your operations.

/ By Kastalon / Articles of Interest • Case Studies • Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry • Packaging Industry • Plastics Industry • Success Stories/ • / 0 Comments

Hurricane Assistance comes in all shapes and sizes

“Having a knowledgeable sales person that could evaluate the situation and develop a strategic plan to efficiently process the roller allowed Berry to reduce the down time and continue to support their customers.”

Due to Hurricane Harvey’s  damage sustained at the Berry Plastics facility in Victoria, Texas, the Berry Plastics plant in Aurora, Illinois was called on to ramp up their operations to pick up the production lost in Texas. In order to keep running, Tim Neal, the Purchasing Agent at Berry Plastics in Aurora, reached out to Kastalon Inc. for emergency assistance on a roller that had imperfections and that needed regrinding.

Thanks to the technical expertise of the sales engineer at Kastalon, the roller was inspected at the Berry facility and sent to Kastalon for emergency repairs and an expedited return. According to Tim Neal, “Having a knowledgeable sales person that could evaluate the situation and develop a strategic plan to efficiently process the roller allowed Berry to reduce the down time and continue to support their customers.” When faced with critical disasters, it is imperative to have suppliers that not only have the expertise and ability to help, but the compassion to help where they can.

Kastalon offers complete roller services from the simple recovering of used rollers to regrinds, core repair, bearing assembly, balancing, and new core construction. We can work from samples, drawings or provide design and engineering assistance to develop the most effective solution. Learn more about our Roller Covering Solutions today!

Berry Plastics, is a global leader in packaging and protection solutions. They believe we have a responsibility to play a positive role in the communities and environments in which we operate and serve. From the way we operate our facilities, to the industry partnerships we have developed, to our community education programs, Berry is committed to designing our products with the environment in mind.

Hurricane Harvey – August 25-29, 2017

/ By Kastalon / Automation Industry • Automotive and Transport Industry • Conveyor Systems • Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry • Material Handling and Logistics • Success Stories/ • • • / 0 Comments

Koat-A-Roll® – Doncaster Gear Products

Challenge/Problem/Issue
Doncaster Gear Products specialize in forging and machining their own gears. As part of the forging process, they blast many different parts. For this process they make steel fixtures to set the parts on as they are fed into the automatic blaster. These fixtures represent a significant investment as hundreds are made annually, however, the blaster wears them away over time.

Solution
Attempting to find a way to give these fixtures a longer life, Doncaster Gear purchased Koat-A-Roll® polyurethane sleeves to put over the fixtures. Although not a standard application for Koat-A-Roll conveyer roller sleeves, the exception wear properties of the material and the cylindrical shape made it a perfect fit.

Customer Value
Within the first year, Doncaster realized a $2,000-$3,000 savings in material and machining cost. According to Dave Quarnstrom, “Although this is an unconventional use of the product, it was a great investment.”

/ By Kastalon / Automation Industry • Automotive and Transport Industry • Can Manufacturing Industry • Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry • Press Releases/ • / 0 Comments

Fork-Kushions® – New muscle takes the Floor

New patent pending Coil Saddle takes safety and stability to a whole new level.

Alsip, IL – Kastalon, Inc. has blended portability and stability to create the Coil Saddle , a revolutionary coil storage device for any application. The deep cradle fits virtually any size coil and takes up minimal floor space. The unique design offers the versatility of using it as a moveable fixture in staging areas or affixed permanently to the storage area floor.

Made of bright safety yellow polyurethane and reinforced steel frames the Coil Saddle surprisingly only weighs 45# and can be easily moved out of the way when not in use, thus avoiding tripping hazards.

With the cost of metal continually increasing, the cost of scrap becomes a greater factor to your profitability. Coil Saddles is your front line weapon in scrap management by protecting surface sensitive metals from floor irregularities and contamination.

Kastalon has been a leader in the design, engineering and manufacturing of high quality, innovative polyurethane parts and products to protect metals. From the time metal is rolled, coated or processed Kastalon roller coverings, mandrel sleeves, filler plates, coil handling pads, fork truck bumpers and coil storage products are in service providing outstanding protection and increasing yields.

/ By Lyn Thorne / Automotive and Transport Industry • Can Manufacturing Industry • Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry • Material Handling and Logistics • Polyurethane • Roller Sleeves/ • • • • • / 0 Comments

Designing Rollers – Kastalon helps companies save by joining their design team!

When designing a roller assembly it is critical to take into consideration the actual application and environment that rollers will be operating in. Although the drawing might be accurate, it is essential to involve your roller manufacturer in the design phase to assist in choosing the right polyurethane compound that the roller will be covered with. Not all polyurethanes are the same, but understanding how the roller is going to be used and where the roller will be located, is essential in choosing the right material that will result in the best performance.

To avoid over engineering a roller assembly, which can affect the cost and lead time, the roller manufacturer can help choose the proper material with adequate tolerances for the specific application being planned. For example, calling out a very tight tolerance can drive up the cost of the roller unnecessarily.

This is where Kastalon can help.

Recently, a customer gave us a drawing for a new roller assembly for a new process. The engineers called out a TIR of .005. After several months of receiving the rollers as requested, they sat down with us and shared their concern that the cost of the rollers was negatively impacting their ability to sell their new system. Once they shared the actual application and environment with our design engineers it was determined by opening up the tolerance to .015, the cost could be reduced by more 20% with no effect on quality, life expectancy or system efficiency. The lead time was also significantly reduced and the outcome was the customer’s ability to deliver their new system at a lower cost and a reduced lead time.

We like to think that having us on your design team is a win, win proposition!