Uniqueness in the SANDWICH

I thought that I would add to my article, Sandwich Is Moving Our Bread, from last month’s edition of THE LEADER,. This success story is also about the Sandwich caster, but in a very different application.

You guessed it , I’m on a campaign to inform you about this misunderstood material handling caster.

This story starts in 1996 as I was making my first baby steps into the caster world. I was contacted by a food processing plant’s maintenance team who were in need of assistance for a material handling situation gone wrong.

To summerise the problem, carts were loaded with 1,300 lbs. and manually pushed in and out of elevators, five to ten times a day. The original hard phenolic casters were not withstanding the continuous shocks caused by the gaps between the elevators and the different floors. In addition to this, the stainless steel carts needed to be pressure washed on a daily basis at high temperatures with food grade chemicals.


5" Sandwich wheel assembled on stainless steel, total lock rig.

We could not offer hard wheels because of the shocks involved and we could not offer soft wheels because of the ergonomic issue : soft wheels, like Resilex, would absorb the shocks but would have increased the effort needed to move the carts (starting effort). Therefore we offered our 5 inch SANDWICH casters to allow the lowest starting effort, with shock absorbance.

We recently revisited this plant and found that most of our casters that we originally sold in 1996 are still in excellent working condition. The re-enforced nylon components of this wheel, in combination with the elastic rubber ring, contributed to major replacement cost savings AND workers’ satisfaction. This case had proven to me, as a new salesperson, that the Sandwich caster definetely had its place in the market.

Be on the lookout next month as I will give you the details of a third Sandwich caster success story.

Frederic Lagace

Hockey...

For those of you who are missing all the hockey talk these days, I thought that I would write this article to tell you what we’ve been living with our son Joel for the past 2 years.

Like many youngsters, Joel has a passion for hockey. This year, he’s playing his 2nd year of Midget AAA with the Riverains from College Charles Lemoyne in Ste. Catherine. Last year, he played for the Gaulois from College Antoine Girouard in Ste. Hyacinthe. He also participated in an international tournament held in Newfoundland where he was defenceman for the Quebec provincial team. The tournament had teams from the USA, Russia, Finland, the Tchek Republic, as well as from Western Canada, Ontario, and the Maritimes. The Quebec team won bronze by beating the USA. This was great experience for Joel, and this past June he was drafted by the Chicoutimi Sagueneens of the QJMHL.

What makes us even prouder of our son is his academic achievement, which he maintains at an average of 85%, even though he has a busy combined school and hockey schedule. Joel is disciplined and sets his own objectives, of which one is to exercise his passion for hockey by playing for an American or Canadian university.

I’m very proud of the path that Joel has made for himself, and I will continue to encourage him and his love of the game. It hasn’t always been easy for him, but he’s always persevered and that is why Joel is someone that I would never hesitate to cite as an example of perseverance.

Robert Hamelin