Black Bros. Co. in Mendota celebrates new Roll Manufacturing Building with open house

Black Bros. Co. in Mendota welcomed about 300 attendees Thursday at an open house to celebrate the completion of its new Roll Manufacturing Building.

The 18,200-square-foot addition has been in operation for over a month at the company’s headquarters.

“We received many positive comments from business leaders, family and friends – not only about the new building, but also the complex roll coaters and laminating systems we design and manufacture,” CEO and fifth-generation descendant of the founding Black family Matt Carroll said in a news release. “The new Roll Manufacturing Building, the event’s centerpiece, provides better workflow; some new tools; better lighting; and an overall safe, comfortable workplace for our team members.”

Plant manager Mike Delong agreed that the building comes with efficiencies over its predecessor built in 1907, but also mentioned no large-scale project comes and goes without an obstacle or two.

“We are very pleased with the new building, and the transition has been smooth so far,” DeLong said in a news release. “The biggest hurdle we have to overcome is the exhaust system for the rubber grinders and stripper lathe. Because the new building is so [air] tight, we need to figure a way to filter the air well enough to return it back into the building and not lose as much heat. I’m sure there will be a few more things to tweak as we get farther down the road.”

Although the open house aimed to showcase the new space – where Black Bros. handles the complete process of steel-roll manufacturing and rubber vulcanization – it also included tours of the entire facility, select machine demonstrations and a generous smattering of hor d’oeuvres and beverages. Of course, no business’s special occasion would be complete without games, contests and swag. Black Bros. had plenty.

“It was fun to see our team members giving their families tours to show the pride they take in their jobs and work areas,” President and COO Jeff Simonton said in a news release. “It certainly takes a team of dedicated and highly skilled people to manufacture the excellent products Black Bros. is known for.”

With all the already-stated advantages provided by the new Roll Manufacturing Building, the best may be yet to come. Setup on a recently purchased, custom Kingston Lathe still is being finalized and, once complete, will bring greater efficiency to the company’s rubber grinding, the company said in a news release. With a max-load capacity of 11,000 pounds and capable of holding rolls up to 197 inches long and 20.5 inches in diameter, the lathe also was built and programmed to match the exact applications of Black Bros. customers.

“All our other lathes are limited,” Delong said, “either by the size of the roll they can handle or the number of threads per inch it can do. The new lathe can accommodate any roll we have ever made and is equipped with a Servo drive, so we can achieve any thread specs we want just by entering the parameters on the touchscreen.”

Black Bros. has a worldwide reputation for providing premier roll-coating and laminating equipment to a wide array of industries, the company said. Black Bros. machines and machine systems offer customized solutions for unique applications on a one-by-one basis. Much more than an elite American manufacturer, Black Bros. also boasts start-to-finish engineering services, unparalleled customer support and parts availability, as well as project guidance and laboratory testing, the company said.