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ORRVILLE - The Tring , Corp. recently completed work on
and is shipping to China one of the largest projects the
company has built in its 34-year history.
The
company, located at 8991 Lincoln Way East, spent much of
the summer designing and building a 485-foot foam plank
cooling system, which had been in the discussion stages
for two years
According to company-founder and President Roger Rehm,
the million-dollar-plus system includes a special
compression conveyor that controls the expansion of the
foam as it cools after coming out of an extruder. Rehm
said the cooling foam emits a gas, the release of which
has to be controlled if the expanded foam is to hold its
correct shape and density.
The
485 feet of conveyor and several transfer stations allow
the foam plank to cool before being put in storage. The
line, Rehm said, is capable of production speeds
up
to 100 feet per
minute. The total footprint of the system is 262 feet
long by 21 feet wide.
Rehm
said the line is so
long the entire unit could not be fully assembled in
Tring's manufacturing area.
Another challenge, he said, was to build the line so it
could be broken down to fit standard shipping
containers. Foam plank produced on this line, Rehm said,
is used in the packaging of electronic equipment. It is
manufactured in different densities and size ranging
from 18 inches to 58 inches in width. Length of the
product varies form 96 inches to 132 inches, with
thickness ranging from 1 to inches.
"It
is important to note," Rehm said, "that the company for
whom this system is built is not exporting work to
China,
but
rather has found a market for its product within China.
Due to the high shipping cost of foam plank it is more
economical to produce the product close to where it will
be consumed.”
Paul Twinem, senior mechanical engineer For Tring, and
Mike Leghart, electrical engineer have designed three
similar systems for plants in New York, Texas and
California. Each was custom designed for the plant in
which it was installed: Rehm said Tring got the most
recent job through an East Coast company he declined to
name, and which Tring has partnered with on multiple
occasions.
Twinem, who has worked for 14 years, has assisted with
engineering projects for a variety of companies such
as
J.M.Smucker, Progressive Foam, Bauer Corp., Alpine
Cheese, Wooster Hydrostatics Buehler's and Brewster
Dairy. Other companies" like American Saw,
Allen-Bradley; Crane Performance Siding, UPS and Owens
Corning also use Tring designed machinery.
Twinem said the unit is being shipped to New York where
it will be placed in shipping containers. From there it
will head for China, a trip that will
take
an additional month.
Rehm said Tring employs 25 workers and has customers in
Mexico, Scotland, Argentina, Germany and China. In
addition, Tring is quoting custom swaging machinery for
India and Saudi Arabia.
Besides its custom machinery division, Tring
is
a
full-service fabrication and machining company, and
provides custom conveyor manufacturing and service. The
company produces a line of backyard camping products
such as camping products such as campfire rings and
grill kits.
Rehm noted in the major economic downturn that followed
the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, Tring lost a number of
competitors what were not diversified enough to ride out
the storm. If we had only the special machinery, we
wouldn’t be here today.” Said Rehm, adding its
fabrication division allowed it to survive that period.
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