Tring does big project for China firm

September, 2007, The Daily Record, Wooster, OH By PAUL LOCHER Staff writer

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.

custom.