Freudenberg’s Tillsonburg facility helped to restore power to storm-ravaged communities

Freudenberg-NOK’s Tillsonburg, Ont., Can. facility was able to increase production of the silicone rubber-covered fiberglass core rod that K-LINE INSULATORS uses to manufacture guy strain insulators, thus helping address an industry material shortage driven by last year’s extreme weather and hurricanes.

Tillsonburg encapsulates fiberglass rod in silicone rubber and cures it for K-LINE. The coated rod is impervious to moisture and other environmental degradation, while maintaining a very high insulating value.

“K-LINE INSULATORS supplies a premium product to its utility customers and when disasters like last year’s hurricanes strike, the company prides itself on being able to respond to customers’ critical product needs,” said A.J. (Tony) Carreira, President of K-LINE. “K-LINE has valued Freudenberg-NOK’s supply partner relationship for many years.”

Throughout its long partnership with K-LINE, Tillsonburg has vigorously pursued product and process improvements in its work, Blair noted. For example, the plant is exploring how to more efficiently bond the rubber to the rod through an alternate process that would not only lower costs but also facilitate lean production by combining multiple batch operations into a single line operation.

“We produce a very high-quality product for K-LINE, but we are still very proactive in meeting with their engineers and entire team to discuss potential product and process improvements,” Blair said. “We share what we are working on, they share what they are working on and as a result, we are both better able to respond to the market.”

And Freudenberg’s efforts to build such dynamic communications with K-LINE has yielded other results as well. In December, K-LINE presented Tillsonburg with its 2017 Supplier Partner Achievement Award, for exceptional quality and delivery metrics and exceptional cooperation.