WHEELABRATOR EZEFIT™ WHEELS INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY FOR LODGE MANUFACTURING

Long-time Wheelabrator customer, Lodge Manufacturing, located in South Pittsburg, Tenn., manufactures cast iron cookware such as pots and pans. Ongoing maintenance problems with the wheels on their wire mesh belt machines had become an issue. They kept having motors fail due to hub failure on the old wheels. This caused ongoing maintenance problems and the repair of the old wheels was a messy, time consuming job.

[ClickPress, Tue Aug 22 2006] Long-time Wheelabrator customer, Lodge Manufacturing, located in South Pittsburg, Tenn., manufactures cast iron cookware such as pots and pans. Ongoing maintenance problems with the wheels on their wire mesh belt machines had become an issue. They kept having motors fail due to hub failure on the old wheels. This caused ongoing maintenance problems and the repair of the old wheels was a messy, time consuming job.

The solution was to replace the four bottom wheels on one of the wire mesh belt machines with new EZEFIT™ wheels. Four direct drive wheels with 18-inch blades were installed in April 2005. This wire mesh belt machine runs 16 hours a day five to six days a week. By only replacing the four bottom wheels, Lodge Manufacturing was able to resolve the maintenance issues with those four wheels and increase the line speed from 8 feet per minute to 10 to 12 feet per minute. And this solved most of their problems without a large capital expenditure. The company plans to eventually replace all of the wheels with EZEFIT™ wheels.

David Mantooth, Cleaning Room Supervisor states, ‘We are very impressed with the life of the blades, the ease of maintenance and the cleaning capabilities of new wheels.” He continues, “Our new EZEFIT 18-inch blades are lasting a lot longer than old wheels. Since our installation the end of April we have not had to replace one single part! We have exceeded 1,500 hours blade life so far in our foundry with sand loading. This is an impressive track record for any wheel.”

The hardest area to clean on the castings at Lodge Manufacturing is the recessed bottoms of the pots and pans. Because the new wheels offer a wider blast pattern than old wheels, the media distribution is better and this helps account for longer life. Adding the four EZEFIT™ wheels on the bottom of the machine is equivalent to added five wheels because of the increased size of the blast pattern.
The EZEFIT family of Wheelabrator® wheels offers the latest technology in wheel design that reduces maintenance cost and improves productivity. The inherent advantage of bi-directional rotation for use in clockwise or counterclockwise wheel applications can lower parts inventory costs. Wheelabrator has capitalized on this advantage with a direct-drive design that offers standard or custom base mounting for increased versatility. EZEFIT wheels are available in 3-1/2” or 2-1/2” blade widths. A variety of wheel diameters from 13” to 27” with 3600 RPM and 1800 RPM versions are offered in order to meet any application.

TARGETLOK® control cage positioning is now a standard feature on all EZEFIT wheels, to insure consistent control cage location no matter how many times the tune-up kits are changed.
TARGET-TRAK™ blast pattern adjustment is an available feature that allows the remote control of blast pattern targeting from the control panel for more efficient blast performance.

Wheelabrator Plus, the parts, equipment modernization and service division of the Wheelabrator Group, helps customers improve the efficiency of their existing blast equipment operations. Focusing solely on the aftermarket, Wheelabrator Plus works with all customers to provide effective solutions for difficult cleaning problems. Wheelabrator Plus regionally based sales and service teams provide an extensive range of Equipment Modernization Programs (EMP) and support services including: on-site training, maintenance, repair and service programs, as well as a complete range of replacement parts for a variety of wheel blast and air blasting applications. For more information on EZEFIT wheels, call 1-800-845-8508.

Wheelabrator Group is a global provider of surface preparation and finishing solutions. Committed to offering the broadest array of technologies, products, services and technical know-how, Wheelabrator Group works closely with customers to deliver the best solutions for their specific requirements. The company's strategically located and electronically linked offices allow Wheelabrator Group to provide unrivalled customer service and support worldwide. For more information on Wheelabrator visit the web site at www.wheelabratorgroup.com or e-mail info@wheelabratorgroup.com.
# # #

Wheelabrator products are protected by patents issued and pending in the United States and other countries.
Wheelabrator reserves the right to change the specifications referred to in this literature at any time, without prior notice.
Wheelabrator is a registered trademark of Wheelabrator Technologies Inc.
EZEFIT, TARGET-TRAK and TARGETLOK are trademarks owned by Wheelabrator Group, Inc.

Bookmark this release: Del.icio.us - Digg - Furl - Blinklist - Reddit