Mod ern Plant of Coraltex, Inc. Has Had Rapid Growth Since its Establishment in 1940

Coraltex, Inc., manufacturer of the widely known Coralite, Coralether, and Handityle, with factory at 812 East 59th Street. Los Angeles, has had a remarkable growth since the company was incorporated, July D, 1940. It is a 'n.holly orvned subsidiary of Dant & Russell, Inc., Portland.

The manufacture of these products from Masonite tempered Industrial Grade "S2S" hardboard was started in a small factory in Pasadena. Business increased and the plant rvas moved to its present location in 1942, into a 15,000 square-foot addition to the warehouse of Fir-Tex of Southern California.

In 1946 a second addition to the plant was built, giving Coraltex a total of 25,000 square feet, with Fir-Tex occupying the other 25,000 feet in the building.

The most modern automatic equipment was installed in the expanded plant, superseding the old single spray booth of the original factory with its hand sanding and hand spraying. In that setup the panels were then put into a waiting room ,by hand, put by hand into the oven, and unloaded by hand just like an old-fashioned bakery handles its loaves of bread.

On the Block-face and Streamline panels all score lines are put in before the panel is coated. The score lines are shallow and 'ivell rounded so that they receive the same amount of coating as the Plain board.

The material used for the undercoat is baking alkyd, and for the finishing, melamine and urea, which are a thermo-setting plastic that must go through varying degrees of heat n'ith a high temperature of approximately 400 degrees before setting up and plasticizing, after which the fir-rish is impervious to rvater, so?p, fruit acids, urine, and household bleaches.

In the present factory four big automatic guns in a waters.ashed enclosed spray booth do the spraying. Panels then enter the tipple room and are carried into the oven, which has four levels or decks. The tipple is controlled by an electric eye that automatically puts the panels into different decks.

There are three different zones of heat in the oven, the last being betrveen 385 and 400 degrees. Panels are automatically unloaded and come down the unloader to the trvo automatic wet sanders. All panels are sanded under water. The panels then go automatically from the sanders into a conveyor to the original starting point, and the