Please share some background on yourself and your company

I have a background in implementing lean manufacturing within automotive suppliers throughout the Midwest. I worked for Toyota and was trained in Japan on lean manufacturing. I was hired by Xaloy to implement lean practices in their roll division. After consolidating the roll division from three facilities into one, I was let go by Xaloy and started USA Rolls in December 2009. USA Rolls was founded on these basic principles:

1. Be each customer’s “roll division.”
2. Focus on building relationships, not profit margins.
3. Do the right thing.

What are the key features in your roll technology?

We have the engineering and fabrication expertise to build eight different roll designs, each tailored to customer needs. We don’t approach every opportunity as a “nail” just because we have a hammer. Instead, we focus on optimizing rolls based on the specific process requirements set by the customer.

What is your biggest area of focus for the near future at USA Rolls?  

Putting into place a plan to continue to insure that we have the skilled trades necessary to produce these products here in the USA, as well as documented knowledge and experience from all the roll builders and designers that came before us.

What are you most looking forward to from the expo?  

Ability to share some greater insight into all the variables that go into designing a roll.

Kevin Sheldon will be speaking on Day 2 at the Plastics Extrusion World Expo Theater.

Conference Producer

Catherine Nock has an MBChB in Medicine and BMedSci from the University of Sheffield, UK. In her previous role as a Conference Producer at Hanson Wade she developed programs for the pharmaceutical industry. Currently, at AMI she works with a varied polymer applications portfolio ranging from Medical Tubing to Electric Vehicles. She is eager to support the plastics industry in innovating compounds and processes to improve functionality and safety across these important markets.