January 1, 1921 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



283 



Model Plant of The Wiklman Rubber Co. 



AN industrial plant that embodies the latest developments in 

 tire factory construction is that of The Wildman Rubber Co. 

 at Bay City, Michigan. Every problem relating to routing of 

 materia! and product has been intelligently considered and the 

 buildings when completed will permit the most efficient operations 

 in tire making. All the buildings will be strictly fireproof and 

 in addition will be equipped with sprinkler systems. 



The main building will be 365 feet long by 160 feet wide, built 

 of reinforced concrete with brick facing, asphalt mastic floors 

 and composition roof, and will consist of three stories and base- 

 ment. The basement and first floors will cover the entire area 

 above mentioned, while the second and third floors will be com- 

 posed of a main connecting building with three wings pointing 

 south, thus making the building look somewhat like a large capi- 

 tal E. The entire building will be lighted by modern type of 

 steel sash and saw-tooth skylights. Entrances, toilets, stairways, 

 elevators and 

 such utilities will 

 be grouped at 

 two points in the 

 main wing of the 

 building. 



The basement 

 of the easterly 

 wing will be used 

 for washing, dry- 

 ing and storing 

 crude rubber. 

 The basement of 

 the balance of 

 the building will 

 be utilized for 

 machine shops, 

 pipe shops, elec- 

 trical shops, car- 

 penter shops, etc. 

 ■ The main floor of the building will be devoted to the major 

 preliminary operations in the manufacture of automobile tires. 

 Here will be located two lines of four mixing mills, each placed 

 under saw-tooth skylights between the easterly and middle wings. 

 In a similar position between the westerly and middle wings will 

 be located the tubing machines, calenders and warming mills. 



The first floor of the westerly wing will be used for fabric 

 storage and the handling, cleaning and rerolling of calendered 

 liners. On the second floor of the easterly wing will be the finish- 

 ing department where the finished tires will be finally inspected, 

 buffed, wrapped and prepared for shipment. In the middle wing 

 will be located the compound room and the storage for com- 

 pounds, while the westerly wing will be entirely occupied by the 

 manufacture of inner tubes. 



On the third floor in the westerly wing stock will be received 

 from the calenders and tubing machines and cut and prepared 

 for the tire builders, located in the middle wing on the same 

 floor. Here the tire building machines will perform the earlier 

 operations in tire building, followed by finishing operations on 

 finishing wheels. The tires will then be passed by automatic 

 carriers into the easterly wing to the heaters that will be located 

 in a manner to facilitate operation, singly or in groups, and also 

 later permit the. use of automatic equipment. 



Over the calenders, mills and heaters will be placed electric 

 traveling cranes to facilitate installation, repairing when neces- 

 sary and hindling of materials to and from the machines. 



Following the manufacturing processes from raw materials to 

 finished product, all raw materials will be received at the first 

 floor in the easterly wing, which will be used as a receiving and 

 shipping room The crude rubber will be prepared for com- 



pounduig in the basement of the easterly wing, thence elevated to 

 the first floor, where it will be compounded and mixed on the 

 mixing mills. The compounds stored on the second floor will 

 be dried and sifted when necessary, and placed in bins provided 

 with chutes for delivering the various ingredients to the com- 

 pounding room on the floor below. 



Leaving the mixing mills, the batches will pass into a small 

 storage room to await their turn in the calender room, where 

 they will be kneaded to the proper consistency on the warming 

 mills. Here the various types of rubberized fabrics and the rub- 

 ber sheets for side wall, inner tubes and other stock will be calen- 

 dered. From the calenders the tube stock will be elevated to the 

 second floor in the westerly wing, which will contain complete 

 equipment and machinery for the manufacture of inner tubes. 

 .\\\ stock from the calenders required for the tires will be ele- 

 vated to the third floor. The tread stock, having been warmed, 



will pass through 

 tubing machines 

 and thence ele- 

 vated directly to 

 the middle wing 

 of the second 

 floor. Other 

 stock will be 

 passed to the 

 westerly wing of 

 the third floor, 

 there to pass 

 through bias cut- 

 t e r s, stripping 

 machines, etc., 

 and thus be pre- 

 pared on reels or 

 in books ready 

 for the tire build- 

 mg machines. 



From this point all of the product will pass easterly through 

 the middle wing, where the tires are built, to the easterly wing, 

 where the tires will be cured, stripped from their cores and 

 dropped to the second floor for finishing, as above described. 

 .'\utomatic carriers provide for the handling of materials and 

 the movement of the unfinished product from one department 

 to another. 



The building as laid out will have a capacity of 2,500 to 3,000 

 Imished tires and tubes per day, and its construction will permit 

 increasing the capacity without interfering with the operations of 

 the various departments. 



Immediately east of the main building will be located the boiler 

 plant, consisting of a modern boiler installation, with pumps, 

 accumulators, air compressors, etc., to provide steam and hydraulic 

 pressure for tire building and for heating the buildings. All 

 machinery will be operated by electric power. Service and em- 

 ployment and executive buildings as well as reclaiming and fabric 

 Iilants are all included in the future aims of the company and 

 may be constructed as its business requires. The company has 

 an ample acreage of land for future expansion. 



RUBBER FEET ON THE "KLERADESK" 



A time-saving upright desk file is called the "Kleradesk." It 

 is made of sheet steel, in interlocking sections, handsomely 

 enameled, and is equipped with highest quality patent solid-rub- 

 ber feet so no metal can scratch the desk. Its use obviates un- 

 sightly wire baskets and metal trays, and its simple system of 

 filing promotes efficiency. — Ross-Gould List & Letter Co., Tenth 

 and Olive streets, St. Louis, Missouri. New York representative, 

 Condon Sales Co., 200 Fifth avenue. New York City. 



