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February 18 2007
Our Thanks to
Jimmy Lowe
Jimmy Lowe has very kindly given a very interesting write up about four of
the North British/Uniroyal Products manufactured at Heathall
Dumfries, some
started their life at Castle Mills and some started at Heathall We are deeply
indebted to Jimmy for his efforts as he had no old notes or other evidence
and did it all from memory--well done, and Thanks
The Editor would also like to thank Jimmy's family including his wife Dorothy,
Hannah, and eldest son Michael, for converting Jimmy's draft notes and
whose joint efforts produced the documents. --Thank you
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February 19 2007
Belting
Conveyor
belting was manufactured in Castle Mills in the 1930s to 1950s. With the
consolidation of the private coal pits into the NCB (National Coal Board) in the
50s and the subsequent mechanisation of the pits, there was a rapid increase in
the use of rubber conveyor belts.
The
increased volume and standardisation of conveyor belts could not be handled at
Castle Mills. Rotocures had been installed in Dumfries to make rubber flooring (Parafloor)
and sheeting. Capacity existed to manufacture belting on the Rotocures, which
were ideal for the production of NCB belting.
A team of two men on three shifts could cure 1200 foot of belting in a
day. With the additional technical advantage of no double cure at the end of
each cycle, this occurred during press manufacture.
The
business lasted for ten years until a fire at Cresswell, with a large loss of
life. The fire at the Cresswell pit
forced the NCB to specify flame proof belting which could only be met
economically by replacing rubber with PVC.
A
two year attempt to manufacture PVC belting on the Rotocure by installing a
pre-heater in front of the cold Rotocure, to consolidate the pre-heated plies
failed.
To
replace the lost business a new fabric to the UK using a cotton nylon doubled
yarn was developed with the help of J Brights. The cotton nylon gave us the
opportunity to use a standard method of belt construction at Heathhall. The new
belting fabric had the ability to operate under higher tension and was more
durable and capable of operating under greater tension and work loads.
To
exploit capability of carrying extra load the new belts required the setting up
of a marketing team using engineers capable of conducting site visits and
presenting a complete conveyor plan to customers.
With
cotton nylon belts, the opportunity arose to meet the CEGB (Central Electricity
Generating Board) and British Steel demand for stronger belts.
With
the developing overseas market, the Dumfries team sought and surveyed business
world wide. Concentrating on large open cast mining, such as copper in Chilie,
bauxite in Trinidad, nickel in Canada and ores from numerous other locations.
An
example of the type of cooperation and ingenuity required to get a USSR contract
for belts to operate at temperatures of -45 c to + 45 c with high tension and
heavy load and extremely long lengths. The customer did not want to splice short
lengths of belting in the field.
The
design required the use of 100% polyester fabric spun woven by J Bright with
adhesive suitable for attaching rubber to polyester produced by J Mandleberg;
both firms were located in Manchester.
The
process of adhesion was time sensitive and relied on delivery within strict time
limits. Delivery required the crossing of Shap summit that was notoriously
difficult to pass due to ice and snow and before the completion of the motorway.
We
used the local AA man’s telephone to call ahead when the lorry cleared the
summit. On this communication the Bambury started mixing the compound, as making
and curing had to be completed in 48 hours.
With
this tight schedule and delays in transport we did not know exactly when the
work could commence. The crews had to remain flexible and dedicated to the
achieve production within the 48 hour dead line.
A
problem arose in getting completed twelve feet (in diameter) belts out of the
plant and onto the low loader. This was quickly solved by knocking a large hole
in the plant wall.
It
is of interest that the Russian contract brought the belting in 1985 and 1986
into profit.
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February 18 2007
Golf
Balls
Design and Manufacture
Moved to Dumfries from Castle Mills in the 1950’s . the product and
equipment was not upgraded
and with time failed to meet the customer requirement. The Rhode Island
plant of Uniroyal had
developed a new 1.68 inch ball to incorporate all proven advances in
materials including a new
mould design which had been developed with the help of NASA. A dedicated
production facility
was built at Heathhall using US designed equipment , which made a 1.68 and
1.62 inch ball to
meet the UK and overseas markets.
The 1.62 inch ball was
re-designed at Heathhall and tested out on a Driving Machine installed in
the field to the North East of the plant. The 1.62 inch ball was also
tested on the durability machine
installed in the plant, which proved that the new 1.62 inch ball met all design
parameters.
The changes made such an impact on the position of
the product in the market that all other
manufacturers eventually adopted the changes.
The products incorporated ;
- A titanium white urethane paint to replace oil
based paints which yellowed and chipped
- Decal transfer lettering to give improved
appearance, and allowed the customers to use
company logos or marketing slogans.
- Plastic (Surlyn) covers replacing Balata covers to
stop cutting and improve durability
- Isoprene synthetic rubber to improve thread
performance and make possible standardized
tension
- Butadiene to give more bounce to the centre
replaced the barytes filled rubber bag.
(The barytes filled rubber bag could distort during winding , giving
unstable flight)
- The mould was so designed it could only be made by
a specialist firm, using a
computer
controlled lathe and drilling machines. This firm was located in New Jersey.
This allowed
for new patter of shallower dimples.
The randomized pattern of shallower
dimples gave a smooth airflow over all surface areas, giving
increased lift (exploiting the Venturi effect) and improved direction, no matter
how the ball was
placed on the tee.
-----Wilson remained prime customer.
To fill out the additional volume,
other UK customers were supplied with the improved ball but
not using the Plus Six Diamond design moulds.
The marketing
group saw the opportunity to get a share of the market. They used Jack
Nicklaus (then the world’s number one golfer) and brand name Plus Six
(emphasizing the
improved distance using the shallow diamond dimple design).
The promotion of the product
and sales were primarily directed at pro-shops sited on golf courses,
using Jack Nicklaus’
market appeal combined with promotional
golf tournaments.
A solid ball was
also launched, aimed at golf ranges and, with the introduction of better
polymers and two stage molding, the ball was accepted by club golfers and
used in local
competitions.
The marketing group
encountered difficulty in reaching their target market share,
because of the opposition from entrenched brand name loyalties of golfers.
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February 18 2007
Treadaire
Carpet underlay had been
developed in the US at Naugatuck and Mishawaka in the late
1940’s and took the marketing route of making different grades to meet the US
market
boom in suburban carpeted housing.
The production
unit installed to meet this demand required
a 9 foot width oven using
metal patterns and/or chain pattern to give different styles, colour, and
thickness. The plant
cost $1,000,000 at 1950 prices..
At Heathhall the production unit was
of a low cost construction using on the platens
sourced from the redundant 30 foot belting press located at Castle Mills.
The platens were
separated by one square inch bars to keep them apart. The conveyor belt was made
using
60 inches wide garden chain link fencing. The calendered gum drooped to form a
diagonal
pattern and was cured at 1500 C using the heat from steam-heated
platens. When the jute
backing become too expensive, a coated paper backing reinforced by synthetic
fibre was
introduced which could be printed to identify and promote the product. This
development
made the carpet underlay which was cleaner in appearance and made it easier to
lay.
The carpet underlay in the US was based on
a specialist Uniroyal polymer which was too
expensive for UK use. Originally natural rubber was used but required too much
Bambury
capacity and was uneconomical. Phillips cooperated by modifying a product
produced in
Rotterdam to meet our production requirements. And we successfully negotiated a
contract
to have the polymer stored near the factory and then delivered and billed daily.
This storage
and billing was accepted by the backing supplier, which cut our raw
material storage costs
by 80%
Because of the layout at Heathhall,
the simple oven design could be duplicated at low
cost and fitted into the original building. Thus we were able to meet the
ever-increasing
volume of sales without recourse to new buildings.
Marketing and selling concentrated on the
mutually beneficial relationship
with retail
salesmen with great success. This gave a remarkable sales growth of
approximately 10 fold
in the first two years and we then came to dominate the market supported by an
excellent
distribution system. It was estimated that we were selling Tredaire sufficient
to pave the
road from Dumfries to London every year.
With the simplified
production of the product and with strict control over inventory,
Tredaire achieved turnover ratios of up to 200 turns a year. The cash flow
generated helped
to maintain the profitability of the product and the factory during the
inevitable difficult
recessions.
Inevitably other competitors entered
the market and copied our product which, coupled
with the switch to wood floors, made the market more difficult.
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February 18 2007
Footwear
Footwear started
in Dumfries Heathhall in the 1950’s with the transfer of white tennis
shoes to be made on the three new installed conveyor lines. The conveyor lines
were made
to a design sourced from by US rubber. They
were capable of making 6000 to 9000 pairs a
day dependant on style. This utilized manufacturing techniques which involved
clean conditions,
which were then in use by US rubber in North America.
Casual tennis /basketball styles had
been marketed successfully in the US and Canada.
To emulate this success, North British Rubber required new marketing
techniques and the
creation of a design team at Heathhall.
The market demanded yearly style
changes , presentations by models to the major customers
with high levels of stock in advance of promotion and ,hopefully, sales.
This involved yearly
style changes.
The products were initially well
received but the volume was not maintained . The concept
was good but the type of footwear demanded a higher standard of manufacture than
be achieved
on conveyor line based manufacturing
techniques. Specialized molding equipment was needed
to implement the frequent style changes which the market demanded.
At that time we lacked
the necessary promotional and marketing capabilities to compete successfully in
this market.
It would have needed a marketing
approach, comparable with that of Adidas or Nike, in
order to achieve European acceptance. This was beyond our resources.
Starting in the mid 1950’s Castle
Mills Footwear was progressively closed. In response,
a programme of transferring manufacture of waterproof footwear to
Heathhall was started.
This programme commenced with simple child’s wellies and went on to
transfer manufacture
of all styles ranging from Argylls (which was then
the best selling UK farmers boot) to the
Hunter leisure boot.
Manufacture of new types of
waterproof footwear was introduced at Heathhall , albeit in
lower volumes. The increased sales necessitated the installation of 6 more
conveyor lines, to
make the additional styles.
A complex system of scheduling
was required to ensure the availability of the approximately
250,000 different components, necessary to manufacture the multiplicity of
styles and types.
The components had to be made available to the manufacturing process at exactly
the right time.
Of course this was before the era of computers
The correct functioning of this complex
scheduling process was essential to enable the work
force cope with the demands of the daily mix of styles , size ranges ,
colour changes etc. and thus
to earn bonus. At its peak over 600
women and men worked in footwear.
Management had to concentrate its
effort on meeting the constantly changing demands
imposed by the varied market..
Footwear manufacture at Heathhall
could not compete with the lower cost footwear coming
from Asia. It was inevitable the product line would have to be
trimmed to concentrate on specialist
styles. The bulk of the UK
market was eventually supplied by the imported low cost and colourful
styles of footwear. Other methods were attempted but we were unable
to compete in the highly
competitive market which then existed.
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