JORGENSEN CONVEYORS CELEBRATES 60TH ANNIVERSARY

Jorgensen Conveyors (Mequon, WI) celebrated its 60th year in business on July 1, 2010. Founded in 1950 by Charles T. Jorgensen and his wife Evelyn, the company is currently owned and operated by Chuck and John D'Amico, third generation descendent grandchildren of the founders.

Initially, the company was involved in all phases of general conveyor design, manufacture and installation in many types of manufacturing applications. Early customers included major manufacturing companies such as International Harvester, American Motors, JI Case, AO Smith, Ford Motor Company and General Motors. Conveyor types included belt, roller, heavy duty scrap handling and apron conveyors, overhead trolley, slat and chain conveyors.

In the mid-1950s, Jorgensen began to get involved in conveyors for machine tool applications involving transfer and pallet shuttle systems. Along with these systems, it was at this time that the company began to build metal belt conveyors to handle chips,turnings and scrap produced by machine tools. These first machine tool chip conveyors were built using belts purchased from
other manufacturers. Jorgensen bought the belt, built the conveyor casing and drive and sold the finished unit to the OEM machine tool builder market.

Recognizing the weaknesses of existing metal belts, the company designed its own belt, had the proper tooling made and began to produce our own belt. The first stamping dies to produce belt parts were made in 1954. At this point, the OEM machine tool market was starting to become a substantial part of Jorgensen's business. Gisholt (Giddings & Lewis), Sundstrand and Greenlee were among our first machine tool builder customers. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the machine tool chip conveyor market developed as speeds, feeds and chip volumes increased, creating demand for automated chip handling.

In the succeeding years, Jorgensen continued to refine and improve our original design, and developed our present patented 2-1/2 in pitch chain featuring the off-set side wings, chain side bars and axles that pass through the hinge loops of the belt apron plates and all of the chain parts. The patents obtained by Charles T. Jorgensen on the off-set "pass through" side wing came in the early 1960s. This design development was a key factor in Jorgensen becoming a major player in the growing machine tool chip conveyor market. It was and still is an ideal chain for the end-user
customer since it is so easy to take the belt apart for maintenance purposes. The design was also very cost effective, since it requires fewer parts.

During the 1960s, Jorgensen also designed 4 in, 6 in, and 9 in pitch apron belt with the same ease of assembly and disassembly features for larger scrap and parts handling applications in the metal working industries. Additional belt designs were developed in the 6 in and 9 in pitch sizes to meet the more rigorous specifications of the automotive industry. In 1975 the company developed a 1-1/2 in pitch belt used primarily for machine tool chip conveyors. This development was driven by the machine tool industry's trend for building smaller machines allowing less space for the chip conveyor. Again, Jorgensen retained its patented features as to belt detachability.

In 1995, Jorgensen developed the Filterveyor, a chip removal system that addresses the coolant filtration requirements of many of today's high speed CNC metal cutting machine tools. In 2002, the company patented the LoadTamer® Line of process feeder conveyors for the recycling industry. In 2010, Jorgensen introduced the ChipBlocker®. A simple, retrofitted accessory unit for the metal cutting machine tool chip conveyor. Virtually eliminates chip carry-back into the conveyor and chip accumulation in the coolant supply tank.

Jorgensen currently operates in a 100,000 sq ft office and manufacturing facility in Mequon, a suburb of Milwaukee, and enjoys a leading position in the OEM machine tool market in the United States. In 2001 the company established a partnership with Broxtec, Inc. in the Czech Republic to gain new business and service customers in the European market.

Today the company is a global supplier who manufactures a broad range of engineered conveyor and coolant filtration solutions for CNC machine tool chip removal and coolant filtration. Jorgensen also provides conveyor solutions for metal part and scrap handling applications. Metalworking industries served include aerospace, automotive, construction and agricultural equipment, appliance and contract machine shops, medical equipment, oil and energy, tool and die, mold making, steel mills, die casting and forging operations. In addition, Jorgensen designs and builds large conveyors for recycling facility systems that process paper, corrugated, metal, rubber, plastic, wood, construction waste and co-mingled materials.

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www.jorgensenconveyors.com