ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240035
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
What do you do when you have a 950-pound piece of a railroad undercarriage to grind smooth and refurbish?
If you work in Norfolk Southern's East End Car Shops in Roanoke, you do the tedious job by hand with grinding tools and measuring gauges. But that's about to change.
Systems Technology Inc., a Myrtle Beach, S.C., company that opened a design and fabrication shop in Roanoke County a year ago, has built a machine that will do the work in three minutes - not including time spent in handling the parts. The job now takes railroad workers about 45 minutes.
The machine cradles a rail-car wheel frame in a heavy steel embrace and passes twin grinding heads over a pocket in each side that's made to sit on top of a car's axles and bearings. As the grinding heads pass over the frame, small blue spirals of cast steel fall like potato peels beneath the machine.
Each rail car has four frames, one at each corner. Once areas on the frames are ground absolutely level, workers fit them with steel plates to replace the original steel that was lost to years of road wear and the grinding wheel. Then they're ready to accept a new set of wheels.
NS went looking for a machine to do the grinding work a couple of years ago but couldn't find one anywhere, said Tom Bennett, manager of shop facilities for the railroad. NS then asked for bids from companies willing to design and build a machine, and Systems Technology was the low bidder.
The company occupies a metal building at the end of Hitech Road, near ITT Night Vision in Northwest Roanoke County. The building formerly housed a maker of hospital beds. Much of the metal work on the NS machine was done in South Carolina. The shop's own machinery is just now being installed.
Mel Fornaby, who founded the company in South Carolina in 1985, is a co-owner of the Roanoke operation with Shawn Hylton, Scott Repsher and Ralph Kristiansen. Hylton, of Botetourt County, previously worked at a plastics manufacturer in Roanoke and for a coal-mining equipment maker in Pulaski County. He designed the machine the company made for NS.
Hylton, who said he thrives on creative work rather than routine tasks, described the NS machine as a prototype and said problems may crop up during its operation that haven't been foreseen.
NS recognizes that's a possibility but also sees it as a normal thing when developing new machinery. "It may have some problems, but you have to start somewhere," agreed Michael Slaughter, a manager in the NS shops.
Systems Technology built the equipment strong, like NS would have built it, Slaughter said. "Right now, I'm well pleased with what STI's done.''
The machine, as big as a pickup truck, was finished before NS had the foundation in place in the shops to receive it. The equipment will probably be installed within the next two to three months, Slaughter said.
The machine will have plenty of work to do. "There's a pile of side frames down here," Slaughter said.
Systems Technology hopes the work it has done for Norfolk Southern will bring business from other railroads and independent rail-car repair shops. "Any railroad that has refurbish or reclamation shops can use this piece of equipment," Hylton said. The company declined to give its cost.
Among Systems Technology's other customers, Repsher said, are an Eaton Corp. auto-parts plant in Roxboro, N.C.; IVAC, a hospital-equipment maker in Raleigh, N.C.; and Yankee Candle Co. in Boston. The company is at the point, he said, that it intends to hire between 15 and 25 people for its Roanoke operation during the next year at hourly salaries ranging from $10 to $25. The company currently has four workers at its Roanoke shop.
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN SPEARMAN STAFF Shawn Hylton (left) and Scottby CNBRepsher of Systems Technology stand in front of their creation, a
milling machine that lets Norfolk Southern reuse rail car side
frames. color