Having operated a similar mill in Canada, Rolf Steinbock, President of Steinbock Machinery Corp., had been working on a new concept for a scrapchopper that would eliminate the constant hacking of the "lawnmower". Mr. Al Voss, who at the time was superintendent of the ERW mill, liked the idea so much that he promoted it within US Steel, and soon they were building the first dual drum scrapchopper (which has been widely copied since). The choppers worked as expected, and instead of tool changes several times a day, it became a weekly procedure. There was one persistent problem that remained. Because of constant cycling the bolts would work themselves loose and the maintenance people had to keep tightening the bolts with a sledgehammer. One day, by coincidence, Rolf Steinbock walked in just when the bolts had become loose again. The idea for a solution came right then: "Why not split up one big torque into a number of small torques!" He quickly made a sketch of a 2" bolt with a round head that had eight 5/8" socket head screws arranged in a circle on the bolthead. He also specified a hardened washer to go under the head so that the socket screws would not damage the housing. The US Steel maintenance people fabricated a set of the bolts to Rolf's sketch and installed them. Much to the customers satisfaction, the bolts never came loose again. Rolf then proceeded to use the new bolting device on Steinbock Machinery designs for several more years, still amazed with the effectiveness of the product. He pondered about how others must have the same problems with large bolts, but there was a problem with how to effectively stock so many different lengths and sizes. Another flash of insight brought about the idea of using the multiple jackbolt concept in a nut body. After tests were performed it was realized that a stock item could now be quickly shipped to a customer using their existing studs/bolts. Rolf quickly applied for patents worldwide on the system, almost surprised that no one had done so before. Starting with rented space, 3 employees (including Rolf), and a few used machine tools, Superbolt, Inc. quickly made in-roads into the established bolting world. A family owned and operated business, Rolf recruited his sons into the enterprise. All trained mechanical engineers, the Steinbock management team has always approached the solution to bolting problems by analyzing the complete job. Superbolts honest approach to customer relations and ability to solve problems has created a loyal following of over 2,500 customers worldwide. Superbolt's main plant in the U.S. now has 85 employees shipping 60,000-80,000 individual tensioners a year. Along with the nut and original bolt type of tensioners, Superbolt has patented many related bolting products with more on the way. Superbolt, now with over 100 machine tools, including many new CNC lathes and machining centers, has the capacity to make large studs and other standard bolting products. A state of the
art manufacturing facility with a dedicated staff has helped Superbolt
to become the fastest growing provider of bolting solutions on
the planet. |
