Testimonials

Tooling Design for New Product Line a Success

After struggling to productively process a new product line, we contacted Roll-Kraft with a tooling design concept. Within a few weeks, the tooling was designed, manufactured and installed. We have since experienced a substantial increase in line speed and greatly reduced down time. A huge "THANK YOU" to the entire team at Roll-Kraft for their support in helping us make this new product line a success!

Don Scott
Alloy Cored Wire Division
P. C. Campana, Inc.

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Roll-Kraft Provides a Ton of Knowledge

Thanks for the timely response. I am grateful for the time and effort Roll-Kraft puts into their rollforming technical tips and blogs. What a ton of knowledge. Well done! Thanks again!

Carla Kimberlin
Continuous Improvement Coordinator
Omco-Midwest Rollforming

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Roll-Kraft Works Closely with Customer to Guarantee a Project's Success

I just wanted to inform you that we completed our initial production trial with the new Roll-Kraft tooling last week. The trial went very well and we are pleased with the design and performance of the new tooling. After the initial setup was made, we were able to produce a truckload of finished product without having to make any tooling adjustments during the entire run. The finished product looked very good with a well interlocked seam.

I would like to thank all of you again for helping to make the tooling design changes vs. our traditional tooling design. Your input on the tooling design was very helpful and demonstrated your technical knowledge and design experience to us. The operators who ran the trial really liked the new design and consider it a significant improvement over the old one. They were all impressed with how well it ran during the production trial.

We all appreciate the contributions Roll-Kraft made in the tooling design as well as your willingness to work closely with us on this project to help guarantee its success. Thanks for all your patience and understanding in working through the several design iterations to get to the final endpoint. I think all of the effort and hard work was well worth it and will build a good base for moving forward on other Minteq tooling design projects.

I appreciate all your help..........

Dave Dudek
Minteq International, Inc.

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Supplier Who Did What They Said They Would Do

It was really great to work with a supplier who has good dialogue and did what they said they would do. Very refreshing in this day and age.

Stu Schwartz
Plant Manager- Canaan Plant
Minteq International, Inc.

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Roll-Kraft is an Elite Engineering and Tooling Manufacturing Company

I really appreciate all the hard work and diligence that everyone from Roll-Kraft has put forth this year in a continued effort to ensure the success of American Roll Form. I always feel privileged being associated with one of the elite engineering and tooling manufacturing companies. Roll-Kraft provides greater opportunities for ARF and enables us to expand into many marketplaces that require more than the "standard custom roll form supplier". It was great working with each of you this year and I look forward to next year.

Randy Myers
Director Of Engineering Sales
American Roll Form

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Roll-Kraft Meets Our Schedule

Thank you Roll-Kraft for helping us in our times of need. Sometimes our schedule dictates us to jump back on a product line sooner than we normally would. I know I can count on their wonderful staff to help get us the tooling we need, when we need it. They adjust to meet our needs and ensure we are prepared for whatever issues may arise. This has become the Roll-Kraft way and they never let us down. Their staff does its best to make our job much easier. Thank you.

Eric Mampel
Welded Tubes, Inc.

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Very Pleased with Turnaround Time on Weld Rolls

Dan,

Just received the weld rolls back from you for regrind. I'm very pleased with the turn around time.

Nice job.

Mike Benedict
Dundee Products

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Roll Forming Equipment and Processes Aid in Response to Growth

Roll forming equipment and processes have been one of the keys to GRD’s ability to growth over the past few decades. Advances in the roll forming industry prompted the Suwanee Operations team to investigate these changes and pursue the latest technology in the industry. In October of 2010, a decision was made to partner with Roll-Kraft Inc. in Mentor, Ohio to build a new roll forming line for Suwanee Operations. The reasons behind this decision included:

     ●  Increased production capacity
     ●  Backup to existing processes
     ●  Lower cost production tooling

One of the advances in the roll forming industry that allows for lowering the overall tooling cost is the use of “rafted tooling.” Traditionally, a roll form line was built to produce only one part-profile. By mounting the roll tooling on moveable plates or “rafts,” the roll form line is more like a powered punch press with changeable dies. This tooling concept allows the same line to produce multiple parts on the same base with a quick tool change. The new line in Suwanee was tooled for VCS3 frames, VCS3 blades and 530/630 return blades. The changeover time on this line is expected to be 45 minutes or less to switch from one part-profile to another.

In addition to the tooling changes, the latest electronic controls from AMS in Maryland Heights, MO are also in place on this line. This hardware/software combination allows the operator to select parameters by component part number and automatically communicate part data to production control computers.

The specifications for this line were developed to include the current production needs of Suwanee, as well as future considerations. The press and roll sizing for this line will allow for common tooling in all of Price's production facilities in the near future. This will also allow new product profiles to be considered for the economies of roll forming without having to bear the cost of an entire roll forming line.

By improving the manufacturing techniques that helped us be successful in the past, we are poised to grow into the future.

Click here to view the full testimonial from Suwanee Operations.

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Roll-Kraft Northern Makes Maintaining Our Tooling Inventory Easier

To whom it may concern,

Over the past year, I have had the opportunity to obtain the services of Roll-Kraft Northern. I am happy to supply them this testimonial.

Being new to the roll-forming industry, I began my relationship with them with limited knowledge of roll tooling. With the help of Dan Ruiz, the Sales staff, Engineering personnel, and all others involved I have been able to maintain our tooling inventory with relative ease. My ultimate responsibility here is making sure we have quality tooling available to manufacture a quality product. The services I’ve received through quality regrinds, low lead times, and on time deliveries has been exceptional, making this possible.

I would also like to recognize Roll-Kraft, as an entity, for being there as support in troubleshooting some of the issues we may have had on our tube mills other than tooling.

I appreciate Dan Ruiz keeping in touch with me on a regular basis to make sure Roll-Kraft Northern is satisfying our needs and look forward continuing our business relationship for years to come.

Sincerely,

Ron Perttu
Tooling Technician
Tectron Tube
DePere, WI

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Quick Response to Equipment Problems

I wanted to take this time to thank Roll-Kraft for their quick response in correcting our problems with the existing equipment we have. Frank Lowery was very helpful in getting our problems solved fast and made sure we were satisfied with what he had done, and our staff understood exactly what was done to our mill. Look forward to working with Roll-Kraft in the future.

Bob Schaecher
Supervisor
Dixline Corp.

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Roll Design Course was Great!!!!!

I and the CMC Team wanted to thank you again for the roll design course at Roll-Kraft. Both yours and Chuck's expertise and knowledge really showed through. Your teaching was great, and it helped us to gain a better understanding of the key aspects to roll design. It also enables us to talk to our management about tools we should be looking into to better troubleshoot our profiles and validate our current design thought process. Thanks again.

Matt Jacobs
Tooling Engineer
Chicago Metallic

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Impeccable Roll Forming Training Session

Thanks Chuck, everyone here is still abuzz with the impeccable job that you and Dave provided. I have spoken to a lot of the guys and they all feel they took something away from the training, and it will make them more successful at their jobs. We really appreciate the great job you both did and it is inconceivable the amount of payback that will be yielded from this knowledge. The organization is certainly better and stronger in operating knowledge and skill level than it was a week ago!

Thanks,

Randy Myers
American Roll Form

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Roll-Kraft Solves Tooling Issues

I don't always call people when I have questions about tooling issues, but when I do, I call Roll-Kraft...keep up the good work my friends.

Jorge Palma
Ameristar

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Complete Satisfaction with Pipe Mill Training Seminar

Last week Mr. Robert Sladky, Vice-President Tube Mill Engineering - Roll-Kraft facilitated the above noted on-site seminar at our pipe mill location. We felt compelled to advise you of our complete satisfaction with Mr. Sladky and his program outline and thoroughness. More significantly we were extremely pleased with Mr. Sladky's knowledge with the operational aspects of pipe mills and his quick adaptation to our pipe mill.

Our pipe mill, designed and built by our staff of specialists, produces pipe for structural steel piling in seven O.D. sizes ranging from 4” to 16”. Mr. Sladky indicated he was impressed with the design and quality of our pipe mill and the receptiveness of our staff to learning and adapting different operational techniques. This staff receptiveness was due to Mr. Sladky’s non-abrasive ability to garner the confidence of our staff with his immense practical knowledge and problem solving skills.

To conclude on behalf of the shareholders, management and our staff, we were extremely pleased with Mr. Sladky’s presentation, knowledge and trouble shooting skills and intend to have Mr. Sladky return in the future.

Barry Strauss
Chief Financial Officer

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Tube and Pipe Weld Training Seminar Beneficial to both New and Experienced Welders

This letter is to express our appreciation for the weld seminars by Mr. Robert Sladky.

Everyone that attended the seminars left with a positive attitude and with more knowledge of the equipment that they weld on.

The course was very beneficial to all the new welders that have just started up on the mills. Even the experienced welders picked up new information and tips on welding our product. Mr. Sladky was very well versed and knowledgeable in his field. Any questions put forth to him were answered expertly by him.

The course left everyone with a very positive attitude. We know our equipment needs some work on it, and there were many suggestions made that would enhance our product with little change and little expense.

We feel that the course Mr. Sladky puts on is very beneficial. He kept everybody's interest and attention. Many of the men were already trying some of his suggestions the following Monday after the seminars.

Thank you again for putting on such a great program. We hope we can work with you in the future as we update our equipment.

Sincerely,

Tom Morgan
Chairman

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Roll-Kraft Tube Mill Training Seminar Scores a Perfect ‘10’

I would like to take a moment and express our satisfaction in the Tube Mill seminar put on in-house by Roll Kraft. Robert Sladky did an excellent job as the presenter. He was a very effective instructor who kept everyone interested. This was a large class of 34 and many had no idea what a tube mill was or how it operated.

The associates who attended this seminar included, Tube Mill-operators, Supervisors, different areas of Engineering, Maintenance Technicians, Tool and Die Technicians, and Managers. Everyone enjoyed the seminar.

The feedback from the participants was very positive. A new associate to the tube mill stated that he felt it was a great seminar. Our methods' supervisor stated that he felt the instructor kept the seminar interesting and very informative. We in Manufacturing are going to put Mr. Sladky's methods and techniques to use.

On a scale a scale of 1-10, I would give Mr. Sladky a "10". Outstanding! We would highly recommend Mr. Robert Sladky and the Tube Mill seminar to anyone interested in tube mill operations.

Sincerely,

Ed Brauker
Plant Manager

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Tremendous Feedback from Tube and Pipe Seminar

Just a note to thank you for the excellent seminars you provided for both our Columbus and Marianna plants. We have already heard tremendous feedback, and very positive comments from all who participated. I am sure these will be of great value to us as we move forward in bringing expertise to our people in the respective tooling fields.

Thanks again for your help, feel free to use myself and our respective plants as a reference should the need ever arise.

Regards,

Tony Nelson
Regional Training Director

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Roll-Kraft Technical Support Make Our Difficult Mill Operation Tasks Possible

This is a Thank you note to Roll-Kraft CO for their outstanding service and knowledgeable technical support for our Mill's operation.

Being a single Mill plant located in Canada, and supporting various product lines, our MHI has to be maintained in best condition at all times.

Roll-Kraft Co, Mr. Robert Sladky and his staff, make our difficult tasks possible. We appreciate you support through the years and look forward to work together in the future.

Sincerely,

Stan Karn
Process Engineer

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Rework Drops From 70% to 20% After Tube and Pipe Mill Realignment

Want to thank both of you for your assistance during the rebuild and realignment of the HL-4 Yoder Tube Mill. Your efforts during this important project have started to show favorable results on the quality of the tubing being produced on this equipment.

Our 4" diameter stainless steel tube has seen significant improvements. Rework of this product has dropped from approximately 70% (before realignment) to 20% (after realignment) overall. The 05-20-93 tubing run, the mill operators tried a couple of different settings at the end of the order for 68 sticks of approximately 11' long tubes. These 68 sticks made 608 parts and only 40 of the 608 had to be reworked. That's only 7% rework, which is an improvement that I didn't even think would be possible. Hopefully this will continue to be the case in upcoming production runs.

Thanks again for everything and the overall comments have been very positive. Now the ball is rolling, hopefully it will continue to build up some momentum and keep rolling. I've been working on the Thermatool welder during last few weeks and hopefully we will work with you to improve the weld integrity.

Don Leif
Process Engineer

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Exceptional Training for Mill Alignment and Tube and Pipe Roll Tooling Management

I would like to express our appreciation for the exceptional training program presented by Mr. Robert Sladky. Mill operators and supervisory personnel felt his program helped assist them in set-up and gave them many techniques for mill alignment and tooling management.

Robert's presentation was received well by everyone due to his hands-on background with tube mills and his background with tube mill alignments. The mini-mill and other visual aids were very helpful in making points to those less familiar with mill set-up and alignment procedures.

Please pass on a special thank you to Robert for a job well done!

Respectfully ,

Bob Allen
Senior Manufacturing Engineer

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Tube Mill Training Seminar Well Done

Please accept this correspondence as our formal "thank you" to you and Mr. Bob Sladky for sharing your information with members of our operations staff.

The comments from those attending indicated that the seminars were in-line with problems that occur in mill set-up and operation. Attention to detail that you emphasized will be exercised as we implement ideas you shared.

When we receive the course overview from you we will share this with our staff for future reference.

Again, thank you for a job well done.

Sincerely,

Edward S. Kedzior
Operations Manager

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Tube and Pipe Training Seminar Featured Real World Applications and Solutions

We want to take this time to offer our sincere appreciation to Roll-Kraft, for the seminar that was presented to our employees. We have received very favorable comments from the attendees and have already started implementation of the ideas and practices that were presented. The program was very well paced and your presentation both instructive as well as interesting. Your real world applications and solutions were timely and very positive.

Again we thank you for this seminar.

Gary

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Insightful Tube and Pipe Mill Training Seminar

I would like to thank Roll-Kraft for the exceptional Tube And Pipe Mill Seminar provided to sixty-one (61) of our employees.

Personnel from our Production, Maintenance, Machine Shop and Quality Assurance Departments attended and I have received positive feedback from all departments. Everyone picked up valuable information. In some cases confirmation of things we were doing well and in others new insight into causes and corrections for quality and operating problems.

I cannot overestimate the contribution Robert Sladky makes to the success of the program. Unlike some training programs we have had in the past, Robert is able to establish a rapport with the participants. He knows what he is talking about and it shows. His presentation style fosters both interest and participation. The time flew by.

It is a credit to Roll-Kraft that you had the insight to develop this type of training. Quality requirements are changing rapidly in tubing industry. ISO and the Automotive Industry are pushing us to achieve Quality levels far beyond our historic performance. Good quality training is an essential ingredient to achieve these levels.

Thanks again for the excellent Seminar and I look forward to having you back in the near future to work hands on with our people continuing their training and troubleshooting some of the tough problems.

Bryan McAninch
Plant Manager

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An Invaluable Tube and Pipe Manufacturing Training Resource

On behalf of all the participants of Roll-Kraft's March 9th Tooling, Tube and Pipe Mill Seminar, I'd like to thank your organization for its outstanding efforts on our behalf.

From the planning stages through program delivery, Robert Sladky proved himself as an invaluable resource to our tube manufacturing personnel. As expected, all program materials and instructional abilities were of the highest standard of quality and have since been the subject of enthusiastic discussion within our organization.

We pride ourselves on the high quality of the various educational programs it provides to its 450 employees throughout the operation. Roll-Kraft's ardent participation in this process, through Robert Sladky, has been well-received by all participants and the management team.

Once again, thanks for a job well done!

Sincerely,

Paul G. Cormack, AS
Cordinator, Training & Safety

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The Best Tube and Pipe Training Seminar that I have Ever Attended

I am writing this letter to express my appreciation to Roll-Kraft for the learning experience we received earlier this month. As you may already know, Robert Sladky spent two days with us on the 15th and 16th of August.  August 15 was spent evaluating two of our four mills. The following day Mr. Sladky presented an in-house seminar for 44 of our employees.

Roll-Kraft is very fortunate to have an employee like Robert Sladky. His years of experience and knowledge are conveyed in a very informative, eye-opening way. There is never a dull moment during a Sladky seminar. It is virtually impossible to be inattentive or uninterested when such a presentation is being given. The seminar was taught in a way that everyone here benefitted to some degree. Many comments were made following the seminar. A few examples are as follows: "That Sladky guy really knows his stuff!", "You know if we had those tools we could make the setup measurements and alignment checks that were demonstrated!",   “Why don't we just hire Mr. Sladky for a few months?", and "In all my years here, that is probably the best seminar I ever attended!"

In dealing with roll rework and maintenance questions Mr. Sladky was very accommodating and helpful.

We know what we have to do to be the best tubing producer we can be. First, we must do the necessary mill maintenance as outlined in Robert's report. We then must have our mills aligned so that we can see the benefits of the tooling upgrades now taking place. Finally we have to provide the mill operators with the proper tools to do their job and perform regular mill preventive maintenance.

Again, let me thank you for your help in our tubing improvement efforts.

Sincerely,

Eric Thacker
Process Engineer

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Tremendous Tube Forming Training Seminar

The 120 some people who attended your seminar last Saturday will remember you for quite some time. You did a tremendous job in presenting the fundamentals of tube forming to our people. We are already seeing returns on your program. Several of our operators have been working closely with our machine repair people to correct problems detected in their mills.

Enclosed is the list of attendees that you requested. When we get your certificates, we intend to conduct an appropriate presentation. Again, we thank you and Roll-Kraft for you very fine program.

Very truly yours,
James A. Perry
Manager of Manufacturing

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Roll-Kraft Delivers Hot Tooling In The Clutch!!!!!

Bret Molnar

Awesome job on the turnaround for the hot tooling set we needed, thanks again, as usual, coming thru in the clutch!!!!

Jorge Palma
Tooling Tech
Ameristar Fence Products

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Roll-Kraft Builds Good Roll Form Tooling

I would like to thank you for building some good tools. We did not have to make any secondary adjustments to the roll form tooling. All that we needed to do was put some relief clearance in the rear insert in the cut-off die, and it ran production parts.  For tooling that was not initially tested, I am very happy with the results, and I look forward of doing more business with Roll-Kraft.

Greg Cook
Sr. Tooling Engineer
American Trim

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Roll-Kraft’s Progressive Operation Says: “Industry Leader”

On February 9, 2011 I had the pleasure of performing an on- site Supplier Assessment Audit of Roll-Kraft’s Mentor Ohio facility. Roll-Kraft is a Key Supplier to Jackson Tube Service Inc. providing mill roll tooling.  It was truly refreshing to visit such a progressive company, from their state of the art machining centers, management / information systems to their world class Customer Service and Engineering support. Every aspect of the operation says “Industry Leader”.

The people understood the business and the industry. It was apparent that this is a company moving forward.

Best regards,

Anthony Kelly
Quality Manager
Jackson Tube Service Inc.

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Partnered with Roll-Kraft to Increase Productivity by 30% 

I want to start out with a little history on our roll form machine.  It will give more meaning to what has transpired and how we came to use Roll-Kraft.  My name is Bill and I am the engineer for roll form and welding.

Our plant was set up as a satellite plant about 40 miles away from the main facility in 2001.  One of the main pieces of equipment was a new roll former with master, mid-pierce, slave, S – type sweep unit, and a unique rocking cut-off press.  Both presses have die accelerators so the mill runs continuously.  Due to the usual delays the equipment and tooling was hastily approved and put into production.

I joined the company in 2005 and was given the immediate responsibility for roll form tooling and equipment.  The sections run on the mill are not symmetrical, so we have quality issues with camber, twist and radius in the parts.  We struggled with these issues along with the tightening tolerances being put in place by product engineering when new designs were launched. 

I had the manufacturer and three different roll form service companies in to evaluate and make recommendations for the tooling and equipment. After paying for service calls and no results, I became very disappointed in the roll form service industry and felt I was out there by myself.  As production pressures and quality issues grew, I realized that I still needed help and would try again.  This time I opened up communications with Roll-Kraft.

Initially I spent several hours on the phone with the sales and engineering departments getting advice as to what was causing my issues, what to look for and how to fix the problem.  Roll-Kraft was not concerned with the amount of time and there was no charge.  The advice was good, and it gave me the more advanced knowledge I needed to deal with the tooling and machine issues.

My next problem came during the recent downturn in the economy.  Our roll set was worn and needed to be refurbished.  Production demands were still high for the roll form machine so there was no choice but to have a new set of 16 stands of rolls made.  I quoted both Roll-Kraft and a local tool shop.  With price driving upper management, the decision was made to save a few pennies and go with the local shop.  I gathered the quality data and sent it to the original designer of the tools to have the roll design updated.  I had the rolls made and tried them out.  They did not work very well.  The steel looked like a roller coaster ride in the mill.  We were able to run but with reduced production.  This created a big problem for me and I remembered Roll-kraft and how they have helped earlier.

I talked to John at Roll-Kraft and made an appointment to bring in some rolls for evaluation.  I loaded up two stands of rolls and headed for Euclid, Ohio.  After 3 ½ hours I arrived and found I was expected because there were several meetings scheduled. 

First stop was to get the rolls into the shop and checked out.  Steve Young, Roy Ennes and Ken Platt were right there.  Honestly, it wasn’t more than one minute from unloading the rolls to knowing what the problem was.  They were manufactured at machine tolerance and not roll tolerance.  I quickly realized I had the right company.  “The Roll-Kraft guys knows rolls.”  So much for saving a few pennies upfront!

Next I met with Gary Summerhill: Engineering Manager - Roll Form Tooling, David Rostocil: Tooling Development Supervisor, John Zienka: Account Manager in the board room. We spent 3 hours going over the current design of the roll set and machine developing solutions for my machine problems.  Here again, no concern of the time required and no charge.  It was decided that we needed to get a service technician to look at the roll form line and to do an evaluation. 

Later I met the President who was very pleasant and understands the roll form business.  Then I got to meet with Sharon Betts who I have had several email and phone conversations with when ordering rolls.  Sharon makes ordering very easy and always follows up quickly.

I soon received a price for the service call from John.  I must admit it sounded like high dollars and was going to have to sell the higher dollars to upper management.  I was successful, so arrangements were made.  On the designated day Frank Lowery: Tooling Development Technician arrived. 

Frank was scheduled for two days.  One day for machine alignment and evaluation.  The second day for operator training.  Frank brought all of the tools needed and started immediately aligning the mill.  We ended up with over half of the spacers needing to be changed.  The second day we put the rolls on and Frank trained the operators on how to gap rolls and adjust the towers and sweep.  The operators learned more about the mill and enjoyed working with Frank.  Our production shows that we now have a better efficiency and less quality problems since Frank was here. 

At the end of the service call, Frank sat down with me and gave me a list of all the spacer changes and items that needed addressed on the mill.  As it ends up, most of the items causing us all the trouble came from the beginning with the hasty approval of the machine and tooling.  We are confident that when we make the improvements Frank suggested we will increase our production efficiency 30%. 

If you have tough problems, old problems or even new ones I recommend Roll-Kraft to be the best partner you can have for the long haul. 

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Roll-Kraft Makes High Profile Job a Great Success

I wanted to thank you both for all your hard work in making sure that our mill was well cared for. Your hard work and excellent organizational skills are quite evident in the end result. We are anxious to meet Ray tomorrow and are very confident that the alignment and training session will be an equally great success. So far, this has been the smoothest project we’ve had all year. This is a good thing, because it is a very high profile job. Thank you again, and we’re very happy that we made the choice to employ Roll-Kraft for these services.

James C. Hubbard
Product Support Technician
ASHCROFT Inc. 

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Only the Best People Servicing Your Business

Bret is the best sales engineer that money can buy!

Duane Sulski
Corporate Engineer
Middletown Tube Works

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Roll-Kraft’s Expertise Instills Confidence

Thanks for following up today and soliciting our feedback before beginning manufacture. The level of expertise and flexibility being offered by your company instills in me a very high level of confidence that this will be a successful project.

Regards,
James C. Hubbard
Product Support Technician
Ashcroft, Inc. 

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Roll Tooling That Worked Perfectly                     

Hello, Sharon  

Sharon pleasant greetings, you'll notice that we tested the rollers to make ¾” Square tube and it worked perfectly.

Also, we plan to work with your company again with future business.

Best Regards,

Orlando Naveda
Jefe de Planta
Metales Flix SA.

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Prompt Service and High Quality

John,

It’s always a pleasure working with you and Sharon. You provide prompt service and a high quality product!

Thank you,

Mike Wheeler
Supervisor, Brock Tool & Die
Division of CTB, Inc

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Reduced Scrap, Improve Quality the First Time Through, With Hands-On-Training

Roll-Kraft has been an extremely important resource to Lindsay Corporation.  The tooling and on-site support have been top notch.  Robert Sladky has provided excellent hands on training with our Maintenance Department, Tube Mill Operators, and Engineering Support.  Together we have tackled multiple projects that have enabled us to improve the quality of our tubing products, increase FTT, and reduce scrap.  It is great to partnership with a company that understands the demands of production and is willing to put in the extra effort to get the job done.

Your work is greatly appreciated!

Lindsay Corporation

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Roll Former Issues Solved

Great Job Roll-Kraft. David Rostocil was absolutely terrific helping us with our roll former issues. Adjustments were made on all stations as he progressed and he trained our floor team on how and why!! It is wonderful to work with a consultant that is both knowledgeable and willing to share his insight. What a refreshing experience. Keep up the good work!!

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Thanks for the Excellent Job

Roll Kraft

Thanks for the excellent job you have done on the flash cutters. Keep up the good work.

Joe Racz
Lakeside Steel Corp.

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Excellent Meeting Our Delivery Compliance

Hi Ovidiu

Lakeside Steel has been doing business with Roll-Kraft for over 10 years, during this period we have received outstanding service with Roll-Kraft.  The quality of work provided by Roll-Kraft has been excellent meeting our delivery compliance as requested on our purchase orders.  They are an exceptional Company to deal with.

Thank you

Josephine D'Agostino
Lakeside Steel Corp

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Roll-Kraft’s Dedicated Staff Provide On-site Training and Evaluation

It is nice to work with a vendor which employees such dedicated workers as Roll-Kraft does.  In a recent mill alignment Tim Nahm from Roll-Kraft was here helping.  Knowing our scheduling needs he worked extra long hours to make sure the job got done.  He spent time with our young operators helping them to understand some of the different aspects the alignment which helped them greatly in better understanding the set up of the mill.  We discussed a couple other issues we face and happily offered his thoughts and suggestions.  It is nice to know they are there to help us to supply our customers with the best product possible with the greatest cost and productivity for our company. 

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Always Meeting Our Customers Expectations

Hi Ovidiu and Carlos.  

Just wanted to pass along an electronic handshake & big Thanks from everyone here. Great effort in the timing required around our production schedule and it's in the mill and running.

Craig MacMillan | Tooling & Setup
ArcelorMittal Dofasco
Tubular Products

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Poland Appreciates On-Time Delivery

I want to thank you and all involved in our cooperation. As you remember we started with the rolls drawings which I sent to Roll-Kraft and finished with shipping manufacturing rolls to Poland. All was done as we required and what was the most important for us - on time.

There wasn't any problem with the rolls installation on the machines and rolls work correctly from the start. Have a good day.

Best Regards.

Maria Bartosik
MSc Eng.
HW Pietrzak Holding Sp. z O.O

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Going the Extra Mile to Deliver

Once again Roll Kraft employees have gone the extra mile to support Lock Joint tube. This week the Roll Kraft Operating group found a way to Jump 16 rolls into the middle of their schedule ( a disruption I find particularly frustrating when done to our schedule) for us to have the rolls inspected, ground, polished, repackaged and back in our plant in 1 and 1/2 days. I wanted everyone from the shop floor to Chuck G. know that we deeply appreciate our relationship with the Roll Kraft and look forward to many more years of working together. The tubing industry is now considered to be transitioning to shorter lead times, and much smaller volume/order sizes. We are convinced that our survival is dependent upon our ability to adjust these new market conditions. As we transition will need support from strong suppliers. The dedication of the work force and the Roll Kraft leadership is key to our succeeding in that transition.

The rolls arrived in our plant just in time for us to setup on the mill, run some product and ship directly to our customer. How cool is that!

Bret, please pass along our thanks to the operators who made this happen.

Joe McGee
Plant Superintendent
Lock Joint Tube LLC

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Thanks for Getting Them Out So Fast

Shawn:

The one by three weld rolls just came in and I will be trying them in just a few minutes.
Thanks for getting them out so fast. We really appreciate it very much. Also, we are just
getting around to running the 1 x 1/2 that you re-cut. It is working great. Thanks go out to
all of you guys.

Steve
Imperial Stamping Corporation

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Thanks for the Hard Work

John,

We are just putting the new rolls that you produced in this AM. Please know how much your efforts are appreciated in getting us what we need so quickly. Let your folks know that I thank them for their hard work!
Have a great day!

Mike
Dahlstrom Roll Form

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Delivery Greatly Appreciated

Sharon,

Thanks to all for the quick delivery on these rolls. We received these yesterday and we greatly appreciate all you have done to get these to us in the time frame in which we needed.

Thanks again,
Tim
Monroe Auto Equipment

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Outstanding Service and Performance  

Shawn,

Just a heads up...and a hearty thanks. It is obvious to us now that we ran the 1/2" tooling you just turned around for us on regrind beyond its effective life. Since its return yesterday, it was set up last night and after a little bobble on setup (less experienced operator), it ran like a champ all night and as of this moment is still running strong. The turnaround on this set of tooling for a rush order with no notice was nothing short of phenomenal.

Please express my sincerest thanks to all involved.

Regards,
Ray Manning
Maintenance Manager
Tectron Tube- Division of Allied Tube & Conduit
650 Heritage Road, DePere, WI 54115
Office: 920-336-1707 Internal: 132 Cell: 920-713-0779

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Extremely Impressed With Your Team

Jim,

I do not claim to be an industry expert, but I deal with a multitude of vendors every day. I continue to be extremely impressed with all our interactions and everything you and your team has done during this process of converting one of our roll forming lines. Your teams' ability to cover complex issues in plain English, not only instills a great deal of confidence in your capabilities but is critical for those of us who are not engineers but given the responsibility of managing a project such as ours These are the attributes I look for in key vendors and weigh heavily in my decision making process.

Bruce Resnick
Operations Manager
Trakloc Midwest, LLC
6500 W. Calumet Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53223-4160

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Selecting the Right Supplier for a Major Project  

Chuck, we at NATGUN are very excited in starting this new project with Roll Kraft. During our investigation for selecting the mill supplier, it became extremely clear that Roll Kraft was head and shoulders above the competition. Although there were many factors involved in our decision to work with Roll Form, the primary item that stands out to me is the high level of professionalism we experienced from Shawn, yourself and the Roll Kraft team particularly during my visit to your facility. I feel confident this will continue throughout the project.

Thank you!
Sal

Salvatore Marques P.E. Sr. V.P. Engineering
NATGUN Corporation
11 Teal Road
Wakefield, MA 01880
Phone 781-224-5169
Cell 617-283-0467
fax 781-224-5153

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Replacement Rolls Completed when Needed

John,

We received the replacement roll that Roll-Kraft provided and I am pleased with the quality. I appreciate the quick turn around and look forward to working with you in the future. In addition to replacing damaged rolls, you will be given the opportunity to quote any new roll sets that we might need.

Thank you and have a good day,

Stan Bates
Tooling Engineer
Steelcase Inc.
o.256.771.5447
f. 256.771.5455
c.256.434.0276
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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The Best Quality and Service  

I wanted to let you know that these parts have been received, installed and are working perfectly. Thank you for the expeditious response and execution!

Jay Osman
MWI Components

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Quality Product

Dear Mrs. Betts, Dear Mr. Cahill

I would like to inform you that we used your rolls and all was ok.
We really thank you for your support (quality of your rolls and delivery date).

Best regards

Ccile Pichon | Purchaser
ArcelorMittal Hautmont
Tubular Products

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Outstanding Service

John, it is 11:00 am Thursday 4-23-2009 and the carbide rolls have just arrived. Thank you and all involved for this quick turnaround. Also thanks to Alan for finding a suitable solution to the cracked roll.

Jim
James Gunter, CPE
Plant Engineering Manager
Ridg-U-Rak, Inc.

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Outstanding Engineering Support  

Shawn - The revisions that the Roll Kraft team made to our existing tooling worked out great. The goal was to reduce the end flare on our open tube, and all of our expectations were met. Our customers are extremely pleased and so are we. Thanks for your efforts .

Bruce Nystrom, pres
MWI Components

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Awesome Product and Service

Hi Jim,

I want to thank you and everyone at Roll Kraft for the wonderful service we received during the purchase and design of our 3.5 inch roll set. You were more than helpful in explaining our options before we made our decision to go with your company. I was even more impressed when your engineers took the time to communicate with us on a regular basis during the design stages. They insured that the rolls would work correctly from the start. We ran our first tests last week and the finished product looks great.

Sincerely,
Giancarlo Talarico
Vice President
Quali-T-Group

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Great Service - Flawlessly Executed 

We had a rush Job that needed to get done in a hurry to make an extremely important shipment. The needed tooling had to be built and then same day shipped about 1500 miles from Roll-Kraft's facility to ours. Not only was it done on time, but it arrived about an hour and a half earlier than expected.
The entire process was flawlessly executed and helped us get out of our bind.

Josh Clark
Lifetime Metals
Engineering

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Production was Down to a Minimum

You and your guy did an outstanding job. Thanks. Production was down to a minimum which was what we wanted from the beginning. From Hayes’ perspective, the job went very smooth. We appreciate Roll-Kraft sending the personnel down here to do the maintenance on the mill personally.

Jason Hayes
Production Manager
Hayes Manufacturing Company
(P) 318.487.0100

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Plymouth Tube Company - Training

The in-house seminar and on-line training visits we have received through this year have proved to be invaluable. Thanks to your direction, things are better and continuing to improve.

Thank you, again, for all you have helped us achieve.

Tim Parmerlee
Weld Mill VSL
Plymouth Tube Company
Eupora, MS.

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Split Roll Cost Justification

We were actually sending out our roll regrinds as a rule of thumb at 3,000,000 ft. With the new split & bolted design from Roll-Kraft we have increased our footage perimeters to 10,000,000 ft. We are very pleased with this design and the improvement with our regrind costs.

Robert Gay
Maintenance Supervisor
Tectron Tube

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Carbide Rolls are Non-Magnetic

I have been using non-magnetic carbide rolls from Roll-Kraft in the operation at Middletown Tube Works for the past ten years. We like using this product for our weld rolls because of its non magnetic properties and durability. The non-magnetic carbide rolls from Roll Kraft don’t heat up as much as regular tool steel and this helps us to limit our use of weld roll cooling. We also use this product in the sizing section to stop weld seam grooving and in other wear areas. Non-magnetic carbide rolls from Roll Kraft help to ensure that we continue to produce high quality tubing.

Duane Sulski
Corporate Engineer
Middletown Tube Works

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Welded Tube Orwell on Carbide

At Welded Tubes, carbide inserted mill rolls were the only rational and logical choice for our high volume runners. Carbide has reduced our need for frequent and costly regrinds and gives us the opportunity to keep the tooling in house where it is needed. We are seeing about ten times more than our normal expected tool life before needing any regrind attention. The surface quality is immensely improved by the reduced friction given from carbide as opposed to the standard D-2 roll. The reduced friction helps to eliminate roll marks for our plating critical customers. Carbide inserted mill tooling has helped us in many ways to ensure our customers are happy with the quality of product we have supplied them and keeping the customers happy is what keeps our shop doors open.

Kevin Barker
Plant Manager
Welded Tubes, Inc.

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Tungsten Carbide Cost Justification

We went from two regrinds a year on a set of D2 tooling to no reworks for six years running the carbide tooling, and we reduced marking on the tube. We typically run (4) four million feet of this product per year so the savings and benefits have paid for the carbide many times over.

Kelvin Egner
Tube Mill Production Manager
Shelby Welded Tube

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Cost Justification for Tungsten Carbide Rolls vs. Split & Bolted

From the first day that I started working at Ameristar Fence, I knew I had to keep track of wear and tear of our tooling in our facility as I had done in the past at Wheatland Tube, after a period of time I set our tolerances at 2,000 tons of maximum production on 1.315 and 1.660 O.D. tooling, and at 3,000 tons on larger tooling sets 1.900 to 2.875, which happened to be pretty much the same as my past experience at Wheatland Tube...after a period of time the topic of carbide tooling was brought up during a meeting in which I stated that in my past experience with my former employer it had given us great results with longer production time and less reworks, saving rework and shipping costs; after our meeting I assured my boss that it would serve us greatly with production and cost saving measures, so I was given the green light to "try" a set of carbide tooling...after this "trial" I am very happy to share our results with the tubing industry...after acquisition of a 1.660 tooling set in August 2006, which still has not been reworked as of May of 2008, the output of this particular tooling set has reached 9,256 tons (an increase of more than 300% in production) with no sizing problems as of yet and very minimal or no roll marks during production as well, while at the same time keeping galv build up to a minimum or none whatsoever in some cases, therefore making it safer for our operators by keeping their hands out of harms way by removing build up during production (on tooling)...after the success of our trial with 1.660 tooling I was given the green light to order a 2.017 sq. tooling set, maximum production on D-2 steel was set at 500 to 600 tons, after we started production with our carbide tooling, our first rework took part after 3147 tons on that particular tooling set, which if you do the math, well, the results pretty much speak for themselves; as impressive as these results were, the biggest savings we made were with our acquisition of our .590 Sq. carbide tooling set, we had been producing tube with split and bolted D-2 steel tooling which had to be reworked after 3.5 to 4 million feet, after production with carbide inserted tooling took place, our first rework of our carbide tooling took place after 53,000,000 feet, this alone saved us 13 reworks which would have been done with D-2 steel tooling, so, after seeing the results we get out of D-2 steel vs. Carbide inserted tooling, the decision was simple to slowly move over to carbide as tooling sets' lifespan wears out, our inventory now includes 6 sets of carbide inserted tooling with 2 more due in house within 3 months, as good a result as D-2 steel has given us, carbide inserted tooling by far has the best results bar none.

Jorge Palma
Tool Room Tech.
Ameristar Fence Products.

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Great Seminar and Key Performance Manual

Many times I have been to seminars presented by engaging well-informed speakers who had an answer for every situation. I would leave feeling I had all the answers and all my frustration and anxiety over the process or equipment had been relieved. Once back on the plant floor and in the “real” world I would soon learn that everything did not line up with the speakers “perfect” world and I felt I had wasted valuable time with little to show for it.

After a week of applying what I learned I have to say this was not the case with the Roll Kraft seminar. The speakers were engaging and more than well informed. The minute I walked back onto the plant floor I had my very detailed and easy to use seminar manual open and applying what I had learned.

Every question I had was answered thoroughly and I found in most cases my concerns were similar to the other attendees and there was a methodical and documented procedure to handle the situation. Roll Kraft took a machine that at times could be overwhelming and complex and hour by hour broke it down into a process that just made sense.

Both Robert and Bret are at the top of their game. The difference for me was that they not only knew forming mill process but they new in detail every brand of mill that was represented and compared the similarities and the differences. Rather than explain how a mill will work when tooling, coil and pm are all they helped me to understand when (which is most of the time) all these do not line up how to make a quality product. In the long term they presented a pm procedure that will insure the mill is operating, as it should. I feel I have gained a lifetime of experience in one 8-hour class. Because everything I learned follows the seminar manual presented I never have to worry about forgetting some key information that was passed along…it is documented.

Kevin L. Goad
Handle Operations Manager
The Libman Company

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Great Job Great Service

"I am the maintenance supervisor for Paris Metal Products. We were in need of repairing and replacing our roll sets on our roll former. I knew they were in poor shape but needed to keep the cost of repair down as much as possible. After talking to a ROLL-KRAFT tec Shawn Mitchell he was able to give me three options after inspection. We decided on option #2 this option required some new sets and repair of the rest. The turn over time was excellent and quality of work outstanding. The reassembly went without a hitch and was one of the smoothest ones I have done. I would recommend their service to any manufacturer with roll forming operations."

Kerry Littletown
Maintenance Supervisor
Paris Metal Products

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Superior Service

"We used the on-site technical services in the installation and set up of a complete “used” roll forming line. Their personnel were experienced, hard working and very detail oriented. Their approach was systematic and structured to identify and resolve each installation and operational issue. They had the full support of the team of technicians at Roll Kraft. We were very pleased with the services we utilized."

John
Midwest Steel & Tube

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Excellent Customer Service

Our experience with Roll-Kraft is that it is a good quality and reliable Company. The engineering is top of the line. The company offers excellent customer service as well.

When we ordered our first tooling with Roll-Kraft we simply sent them a finished sample of the product along with the drawings of the tooling and they were able to efficiently engineer a quality tooling set with minimal questions.

Our experience with Roll-Kraft has always been a positive one.

Salvador Carranza
Air Louvers/Samson Products

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Knowledgeable & Professional Staff

Roll-Kraft offers unparalleled technical support for our tube mills. Both class room and on site training have increased operator confidence and removed some of the mystery of tube mill operations. Roll-Kraft’s technical notes have become the standard of instruction for our mill operators and engineering staff. Roll-Kraft provides rapid response to quotations, technical questions and replacement parts. Every shipment has been on time and every phone call has been handled by courteous, knowledgeable and professional staff. Roll-Kraft has earned the right to be our supplier of choice for mill tooling at all of our facilities worldwide.

Randall Bradley
Director, Manufacturing Engineering
Evapco Corporation

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Great Rolls and Prompt Service

Hi Ovidiu,

Everything is fine, I received the reconditioned rolls yesterday and it sure did relieve the pressure that we were faced with. Thanks for your prompt and efficient service, Gary also said to let you know that your efforts to help us out was greatly appreciated by him and it is good to know that we are dealing an excellent service provider.

Cored Wire Dept. Manager,
Lincoln Electric Co. Canada

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Tooling Optimization

Joe McGee phoned to say their customer was very impressed with the way we handled a situation they had. Their customer needed some adjustments to the tooling we provided. Bret was visiting at the time and immediately contacted the Roll-Kraft engineers to revise the design and get the tooling they needed. This was a new part for this customer and they needed production at a high volume. Joe said, “They didn’t want to take a chance with someone else,” and, “They felt comfortable with Roll-Kraft.” Within a few days the re-designed tooling was on-site and doing its job.

Joe McGee
Lock Joint Tube

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Regrinds at Their Best

Tom Gerken from Boyce Industries in Chicago called to say they finally setup the new reshape tooling we manufactured at Roll-Kraft and ran production last week – says the reshape tooling worked out very well and mentioned the first part out of the Ardcor F-10 machine was acceptable. Tom just wanted to call and let us know we did a great job. Great job guys!!

Tom Gerken
Boyce Industries

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Fantastic Roll Former

"John, here is a photo of the machines, now finished as I said I would send to you. I am very impressed by the quality of your roll-formers."

Bruce Overgard
Balance Systems, Inc.

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Excellent Sales Representatives

Hello Soonarie,

I received the rolls yesterday. You have been nothing but helpful and this was the best roll buying experience I have ever been involved in. Thank you very much for your help and efforts!

I will definitely be talking to you in the future.

Israel
Century Tube Corporation

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Excellent Service

To Roll-Kraft
Thank you all very much for the prompt service! Plus Thank you very much for the phone call this pm confirming UPS overnight shipment / letting me know replacement roll was in-house. Tracked it down and just finished installation - its looking fine and we are back in business. Thanks again for the excellent service!

David Brigl
Raynor Garage Doors

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