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Suppliers Continued From Page 10 difficult to bend. It does possess very good strength for the gauge. The thicker the steel, the more the weight and cost involved. That is why we use the full hard steel — it’s a light gauge steel.” Monahan further explained that metal handles provided by Handles USA can either be plastic coated or painted with a powder coating. The plastic finish, he said, is a little duller and may be softer to the touch. The powder coating finish is shinier. Each handle is also cut to length and then the end-fitments are placed on each handle. “In Arcola, where we (Handles USA) make our own tubing with either plastic or powder coating, we also injection mold all of our own end-fitments. They can be swivel or non-swivel caps, and come in different colors and designs according to our customers’ needs,” Monahan said. “After that, the handles are packed, labeled and shipped to the customer. Packaging is done 12 or 25 per bundle.” Monahan reported that the future of the metal handle business relies on the availability of steel. “I believe steel will always be available, it’s just a matter of at what price. The major steel mills are trying to curtail production (in hopes of keeping prices high). They are shutting down blast furnaces and tightening supply as demand is falling,” he explained. “It’s been a crazy year and I’m not sure how next year will play out.” He said a lot depends on the health of the automotive and appliance industries, the latter of which is tied to housing starts. Monahan also added that his company has been working with what is called a “mini-mill,” which is traditionally a secondary steel producer. Usually a mini-mill obtains most of its iron from scrap steel, recycled from used automobiles and equipment or from byproducts in manufacturing. “The price of scrap mimics the steel market. Three or four months ago, I think scrap was at an all-time high but has since fallen in price,” Monahan said, adding that the mini-mill his company is working with will provide full hard steel. “We have begun to work with one of them (a mini-mill) and can eventually advertise that the metal handles from this source are made of 100 percent recycled steel,” he added. “Everybody is pushing
BROOM, BRUSH & MOP
for green, and we are working on this as well. It’s unfortunate that sometimes green costs more. That is always the catch. Technology for green products will cost a little bit more initially until it becomes established.” A report on fiberglass handles was given by Jeff Jones of Fiberglass Innovations in Rockford, IL. He noted that fiberglass is a resin-base product. Therefore, as oil prices increased earlier in 2008, so did the price of the resin to produce fiberglass. Jones added that his company did its best to control such pricing issues by incorporating lean manufacturing practices. He
also presented a sample of a fiberglass handle that his company makes. The handle contained a honeycomb-like inner core that was made from recycled plastic. “We can also make hollow tubes, but they cost more to produce due to the manufacturing process involved,” Jones said He explained that the hollow tube handles require a matting material to be used to help increase the handle’s strength. This matting adds to the handle’s expense. As far as future costs with resin, used to make fiberglass handles, are concerned, Jones reported that he doesn’t foresee prices increasing for awhile. “I think our resin prices are going to stay pretty level for the next year. We (Fiberglass Innovations) try to keep our customers competitive any way we can,” Jones said. “This includes buying larger quantities of glass and resin at one time, and using recycled plastic for the inside of our handles. We have found that the recycled plastic is just as good as new plastic.” Jones also mentioned that fiberglass handles have been particularly popular with the food industry and can be made in any color.
January 2009
Along with producing fiberglass handles for the broom and mop trades, Fiberglass Innovations makes such products as sea walls that come in the form of long planks. “We also make all types of solid rods and other products. Our company is involved in a lot of different industries,” Jones said. While presenting a report on mop yarn, Andrew Dailey of The Jones Companies in Humboldt, TN, discussed three main issues: fiber supply changes currently facing the mop industry, environmental product demands and wet mop import trends. Dailey began by talking about current issues within the cotton industry and pricing trends. He noted, however, that the type of fiber used in mop yarn most often comes from textile mill byproducts. This supply continues to diminish for several reasons, including the continuing closing of U.S. textile mills. “Certainly, if there are not as many textile mills running (in the United States), there is not as much textile mill waste being generated,” Dailey said. Many of these mills that remain in operation have become more efficient and are re-introducing their byproducts into their own production stream. This can diminish the supply of byproducts used by mop yarn producers. Improvements in the cotton ginning process, which is another waste stream, has also had an influence on mop yarn producers. “In 1998 or so, it would take 17 virgin (cotton) bales to generate 1 gin mote bale. Today, because of improvements in processing, it now takes 25 virgin bales to equal 1 bale of gin motes,” Dailey said. “Availability of raw material from the ginning process, as far as gin motes are concerned, is not at the same level. In the ginning process, they are better at not throwing a lot out the door, so to speak.” To help make up for the loss of available cotton waste for the production of mop yarn, Dailey said the industry can use what is called “shoddies,” which are regenerated fibers from recycled woven and knitted goods. Also, a larger amount of non-woven waste has been introduced into the mop yarn source stream. “There are rayon and polyester-based products that are in non-wovens. A nonwoven is a textile fabric that is held together by a non-conventional textile structure,” Dailey explained. “It’s a sheet of material that performs like a textile, but it is not constructed by conventional means.”