Category Archive: Uncategorized
Brook was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and grew up in Osseo where she attended Osseo High School. She received her Associates of Art at CLC (Central Lakes College). She took courses in Accounting and through CLC, received a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting through College of Saint of St. Scholaslastica.
Before working for Stern Rubber Company, Brook did a couple of jobs in general office and she even ran a motel. Brook is our Assistant Controller at Stern Rubber and she has been here since 2008 for almost 7 years. Brook’s duties include managing our customer and vendor accounts, cost accounting, cutting the checks, receiving payments and preparing financial statements. She works directly with our CEO, Bonnie Gastecki and helps manage the books at Stern Rubber Company making sure that we meet our customers needs.
Brook is married to her husband Adrian and they have one daughter Kiley and three step sons, Robbie, Mikey and Chris. Adrian is an avid bird hunter, preferring grouse and wood cock. Kiley, her daughter is in soccer and also is a Purple trim belt in Tae Kwon Do. Their eldest son, Robbie is going to school in Las Vegas studying to be a radiology technician. Their middle son Mikey is a student at Bemidji State University studying Music Education. Their youngest son Chris is in high school and is going to pursue a career in computers. They also have 3 dogs, 2 cats and a bird. Her Cavalier King Charles went to obedience school with Brook and with her guidance her dog won some competitions.
Brook likes to lead a very simple life; her passions included her husband, children and her animals. Her hobbies include cooking, doing yoga and meditation. Working in her garden is one of her favorite pastimes. Caring for her animals is another thing she enjoys doing. You may see her on the side of the road rescuing turtles in the spring. She is grateful for her beautiful family, working at Stern Rubber Company and all of the wonderful people she works with there.
This synthetic rubber is a copolymer of acrylonitrile (ACN) and Butadiene, and tends to have a resistance to oil, fuel and other chemicals. The higher the nitrile (ACN) content, the more resistant to oil this rubber becomes. Some of the trade names used at Stern Rubber Company for nitrile rubber include Krynac, Nipol and Perbunan, but nitrile-butadiene rubber is most commonly referred to as NBR, Buna-N, or just simply nitrile. Nitrile is commonly used in the automotive and aeronautical industry; products that have good oil resistance include oil handling hoses, grommets and seals. A common use for nitrile is disposable gloves, which includes the nuclear industry where nitrile gloves work the best, nitrile rubber is three times more puncture resistant than natural rubber gloves. One product that is a solid example of Stern Rubber Company’s use of NBR is Shinola’s watchbands, which are a combination of nitrile and PVC.
Like other synthetic elastomers, nitrile rubber was used extensively during World War II and was invented 1934 by Erich Konrad and Eduard Tschunkur, who were German chemists. These chemists worked for a world’s largest concern or cartel of chemical plants called IG Farben, which is Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft which was founded in 1925. During World War II, IG Farben created a plant at Auschwitz to take advantage of Jewish slave labor and also experimented on live subjects. One of the products that IG Farben developed during the Nazi occupation of Germany is Zyklon B which was the death gas that was used to put to death millions of Jews and other undesirables. After the war, nine of the company’s officials were convicted of war crimes against humanity and at the end of the war; the allies dismantled the plant, which spelled the end of IG Farben.
The United States also produced Nitrile rubber called Buna N during World War II and was known as GR-N or Government Rubber-Nitrile. This combination of acrylonitrile-butadiene elastomers were later referred to as nitrile rubber. Since all the natural rubber supplies in the Southeast Pacific were unavailable due to the occupation of the Japanese during the war, synthetic rubbers were used to manufacture products for the war effort.
If oil resistance is a concern, than nitrile rubber is a good solution. NBR is often used here at Stern Rubber Company for automotive seals, transmission belts, gaskets, hoses, O rings, oil seals, V belts, printing rollers, cable jacketing and used in synthetic leather. Other products that work well with NBR include footwear, adhesives, sealants, expanded foams, sponges, floor mats, molded rubber and extruded rubber. The temperature range of NBR’s can withstand a range of -40⁰F to 226⁰F which makes it an ideal product for aeronautical applications. Another application for NBR’s is employed in the textile industries where it improves the finish of woven and nonwoven fabrics and has excellent waterproofing properties.
NBR is also resistant to aliphatic hydrocarbons, products of hydrogen and carbon atoms only, such as propane, methane, butane, cycle-pentane and heptane. Just like natural rubber, nitrile can be attacked by ozone, esters, ketones and aldehydes. Stern Rubber Company compounds and mills nitrile rubber at our facility in Staples, Minnesota, and our engineering department can create a formula that will suit your needs for any of your rubber projects.
Stern Rubber Company uses a rubber Rheometer to measure the viscoelastic properties of elastomeric and rubber compounds before, during and after curing. During rubber vulcanization, a Rheometer determines the plasticity, including the cure rate and examines the behavior of the rubber mixture of after it has been vulcanized. Data is transferred to a computer and displayed on a monitor that has measured the torque, viscous and elastic components for the upper and lower halves of the test chamber.
A Rubber Rheometer is a device that is used in laboratories to test raw rubber flow in response to applied forces. The origin of the word Rheometer is derived from the Greek meaning of a device that measures flow. After electricity was widely used in the early part of the 19th century, a Rheometer was used to measure electrical current, but it also measures flow of liquids. Once the term Rheology was coined, it was applied to instruments that measure the characteristics rather than quantity of flow.
Variation of the quantities of these ingredients can be measured on a Rheometer: polymer, vulcanizing agent, cure activator, cure accelerant, softeners, tackifiers, process acid, plasticizer, protective agents, fillers, pigments and blowing agents. The tests that are performed on the Rheometer are done in about 3-5 minutes and are used to identify the possible problems in a compounded rubber formula. The Rheometer measures the change in the properties of the rubber compound during the course of vulcanization. The Rheometer applies force to the associated test piece of raw rubber, including cyclic strain to test the rubber before, during and after vulcanization. The test is carried out at a constant temperature and the stiffness measured is recorded continuously as a function of time.
The Mon Tech Moving Die Rheometer, which is considered the most modern version of Rheometers, is what our quality assurance lab uses at Stern Rubber Company. In fact we have a Rheometer in every building, one in our main Quality Lab at our main facility, one in our rubber extrusion facility and the third at our Aitkin facility. We run a Rheometer test on every batch of material that we manufacture, or purchase.
The raw rubber sample is placed between two dies, in which the lower die oscillates with a ±0.5 degree movement and the upper die is connected to the torque sensor to measure the torque response of the rubber at the deformation. The raw rubber is heated to a working temperature that is between 170⁰C and 190⁰C. We use plastic film which is usually polyamide or polyester that is placed between the samples to prevent cross contamination of the dies during the testing of different products.
The results of the test on the Rheometer are transferred to a computer screen and the results of the processing phase shows the cross linking characteristics and viscous behavior of the compound, creating working information about the how easy the material will process and how the rubber will act inside the molds.
Styrene-butadiene rubber is a mixture of two monomers, styrene and butadiene, and is a replacement for natural rubber. SBR is a synthetic rubber and is derived, like other synthetic rubbers, from petroleum. SBR was created prior to World War II by a German chemist Walter Bock and Edward Tschunkur in 1933. The United States of America, during World War II, created the U.S. Synthetic Rubber Program, to produce government rubber and used a lot of SBR, since natural rubber was unavailable due to the occupation of the Southeast Asia by the Japanese. Being a general-purpose rubber, it was originally call Buna S by Edward Tschunkur and Walter Bock, who created the first patent. The United States called their SBR formula GR-S, which stands for Government Rubber-Styrene.
Styrene-Butadiene rubber has strong abrasion resistance, crack resistance and outstanding aging characteristics when using additives. Automobile tires contain types of SBR materials, since it improves better wet grip and less rolling resistance. SBR is far superior to natural rubber, since styrene gives the rubber a less tacky feel and produces a harder rubber. Carbon black is added to SBR to increase its overall strength and hardness. Stern Rubber Company compounds our SBR at our Staples, Minnesota facility, and mills our rubber on our rotary milling machines. Hydrocarbons, like petroleum, weaken and cause the SBR rubber to swell, a similar reaction as natural rubber. Also, over time, SBR and natural rubber can become degraded by atmospheric oxygen and ozone, but with SBR with its increased interlinked molecular chains, oxidation tends to harden the SBR, unlike natural rubber which tends to soften.
Styrene-butadiene rubber also lends itself to blending with other rubbers and is often combined with natural rubber or neoprene. Depending on the ratios of the SBR, natural and neoprene, different characteristic can be created and used in applications that won’t work if you used SBR alone. If you add an SBR with a high styrene ratio to the formula, you will get a very hard rubber with a hard durometer that mimics plastic. The temperature range of SBR is between -40⁰F to 250⁰F and has an approximate 400% elongation range.
Styrene-Butadiene is used in some chewing gums and in surgical gloves, but SBR is used extensively in the tire industry. At Stern Rubber Company, we mold products such as gaskets, yard toys, hoses, dog toys, idler wheels, marine products, agricultural equipment, fitness equipment, rollers and window seals using SBR. We also use an SBR and neoprene blend for motor mounts, isolators and other recreational vehicle products. Rubber to metal bonding is another excellent application for SBR, including bonding to other substrates as well.
Stern Rubber Company uses many different synthetic rubbers for molding and rubber extrusion.
Synthetic rubber origins begin back in 1879 that one form of synthetic rubber was created by a Frenchman Gustave Bouchardat. He created a polymer of isoprene in his laboratory. As tires on automobiles increased the demand for rubber, so in 1909 a team of German scientists lead by Fritz Hofmann also created the first true synthetic rubber which polymerized methyl isoprene. In 1910 Sergei Vasiljevich Lebedev worked with rubber plymer Synthisized from butadine. This Russian created a form of synthetic rubber was the basis of the first Large scale commercial production before World War 1.
In the twenties, Rubber prices increased as a result of political problems around the world.
Stern Rubber Company’s Quality Assurance program is second to none. Year after year, Stern continues to received awards and recognition for its outstanding and rigorous QA processes. We recognize that we are only as good as our QA team. We are proud to feature one member from our QA team in this week’s blog.
Linda has been working for Stern Rubber Company since 1987 and has been with us for 27 years; she works as a Quality Technician in Quality Assurance.
Linda grew up in Verndale, Minnesota and attended Verndale Public Schools. She worked five years with Moyer Farms and drove a potato truck; she also worked in quality grading potatoes. She is married to her husband Joe and they have one son John Wayne McIntire who is fifteen years old and plays baseball and football for the Verndale Pirates. Her hobbies include fishing, camping and spending time with her family and friends.
As a quality technician for Stern Rubber Company, Linda tests the molded rubber after it is compounded and milled on our Rubber Rheometer. She also does inspections of rubber molded parts, rubber to metal bonded parts, injection molded parts and rubber extruded parts. Her qualifications include doing the PPAP (production part approval process) documentation, measuring the rubber parts on the CMM, Optical Comparator, Keyence and handheld devices. Linda is in charge of calibrations, she arranges to have items sent out for calibration or certification. She also maintains the calibration of all handheld devices used at Stern Rubber Company.
Linda has been team captain for the last six years in the Relay for Life of Wadena County and has been participating since 1999.The American Cancer Society Relay For Life is the world’s largest and most impactful fundraising event to end cancer. The Relay For Life raises money for Cancer Research, providing wigs and transportation to treatments for cancer patients. Linda also takes part in the Brainerd Lakes Area Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Linda was joined by her sister Donna in 2014 and her son John in 2013 and has become an advocate for these organizations because both her family and her husband’s family have been affected by Cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.
Since early November, when talks stalled between members of the International Longshoremen and Warehouse Union (ILWU) which represents 29 west coast ports, and Pacific Maritime Association (PMA), there has been work slowdowns at all of the west coast ports. Still after seven months they are still far apart on many issues. Even though talks are ongoing, the union continues it walk-offs, slowdowns, and other problems that are having impacts on shippers, truck drivers and manufacturers bringing product in from overseas. These problems are affecting manufacturers across the U.S., and even with us at Stern Rubber Company.
The ports effected by the negotiations that cover 29 United States West Coast ports include the major container ports; Los Angeles, Long Beach, Oakland, Portland, Seattle and Tacoma. These negotiations and agreement do not include ports in Canada or those ports on the United States East Coast or the Gulf of Mexico; but Stern Rubber Company has noticed slowdowns and other issues with Vancouver, British Columbia’s port in Canada.
There are eleven members of the PMA’s Board of Directors whom are the chief directors of the largest terminals. Since May, 2014, none of these Board Members have had direct participation in negotiations and have not had a single face to face meeting with the union negotiators. Although there has been activity to resolve the strike from the start, all the decisions are made by the carriers that are sitting on the PMA’s Board of Directors.
Since July 1, 2014, twenty-thousand west coast port workers have been without an agreement and their single focus is to get a good contract for the members of the ILWU. Stern Rubber is hopeful they are almost finished. The main focus of the contract is healthcare and welfare cost and coverage … not wages. In addition, the union is seeking expanding jurisdiction of grain terminals and equipment repairs as they understand that growth in future employment and carriers are divesting chassis to third parties, which the union believes will cause job loss.
Stern Rubber Company is being proactive and we will continue to work to make this work slowdown as painless as possible. Being aware that we have slowdowns on the west coast ports, Stern Rubber Company is adding a couple of weeks to our lead times. Also we have routed our shipments through other ports in Canada and east coast ports whenever possible. If your molded rubber parts are time sensitive, we will only quote your parts at our Minnesota facilities.
We are pleased to announce that Stern Manufacturing is changing its name back to Stern Rubber Company, effective January 1, 2015. In 2006, Stern Rubber Company’s name was changed to Stern Manufacturing in order to expand our capabilities in additional fields of manufacturing.
Although we still offer additional manufacturing applications, we have returned to our primary focus of custom rubber products and have decided to bring back our original name of Stern Rubber Company.
Please update our contact information in your database to reflect the following changes:
Stern Rubber Company 900 Prairie Ave NW PO Box 69 Staples, MN 56479 Main Telephone: 218-894-3898 Fax: 218-895-5548
Click here for an updated contact list of Stern Rubber Company’s personnel.
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