Tom Judge recently discussed Press-Seal Fastener in his article “Holding the Line”. Tom explains how we are helping our customers safely hold everything together.
On the expansion side, Press-Seal Gasket Fastener Division has increased its capacity to produce rubber track pad. “Both extrusion and fabrication capacity has been significantly improved and streamlined,” said Richard Morrison, operations manager. “Press-Seal Gasket Corp., our parent company, consolidated these processes into a single, 100,000-square-foot facility in Fort Wayne, Ind.
“As to the marketplace, we find that the current market is continually increasing,” Morrison said. “Older transit projects that had been postponed are being dusted off and re-evaluated. We see a trend towards better design up front to reduce long-term maintenance cost in DF applications. Of course, the uncertainty of fuel prices is driving a trend towards expansion in transit systems nation-wide. We are also seeing a big increase in system-wide DF replacement projects, in which customers are not only requiring insert assemblies, but also our Corefast® drilling systems and diamond core drills.
“We have expanded our concrete anchoring solutions significantly in the last year,” said Morrison. “Most people know us for our Insulguard polymer inserts, which are ideal in rail applications where stray current control is required. This is still our biggest seller. However, due in most part to customer demand, we have introduced stainless steel inserts, A325 steel inserts, and most recently a ductile iron insert. We offer the latter two with epoxy coating for electrical isolation. We do offer them with a yellow zinc plating as well. “We have already delivered over 160,000 stainless inserts, with orders for 100,000 more,” he said. “We have orders for 120,000 ductile iron inserts and 60,000 A325 steel inserts for delivery in the second half of 2007.
“We are developing different sizes of these new inserts for specific applications,” Morrison noted. “One major transit authority liked our A325 steel insert for use in system-wide DF replacement, but needed a shorter part specifically to meet their needs. Another needed a very long part to ‘tie’ together multiple concrete pours in a DF replacement project. Our years of experience in concrete anchoring allow us to meet these demands quickly and cost effectively. We had one customer recently compliment us by calling us ‘The Anchor Guys.’”