Menges Roller signs deal with Delta T, Paratherm

WAUCONDA, Ill.—Menges Roller Co. has signed a deal to partner with Delta T Systems Inc., a manufacturer of chillers and temperate control systems, and Paratherm Corp., a heat transfer fluids company.

Delta T will supply chillers and temperature control units used in Menges Roller's liquid-filled heat transfer units that cool and heat fluids. In addition, Paratherm will supply its line of thermal transfer fluids to Menges Roller's converting sector.

“The reason we wanted to work with them is that we are selling these heat transfer products into a lot of industries, plastics and so on, rubber, textiles, converting,” said Matthew Menges, president of Menges Roller.

Delta T's heat transfer units go hand-in-hand with what the Wauconda-based company was seeking. Customers kept asking Menges Roller where to get a heat transfer unit or who might engineer them.

“So we started looking for a source,” Matthew Menges said.

Delta T's marketing department had reached out to Menges Roller; through several meetings, the relationship between the two firms began.

Matthew Menges said the company wanted to partner with a firm based in the Midwest in order to “touch and feel their products on a regular basis.” Richfield, Wis.-based Delta T is only about 90 minutes from Menges Roller.

The company will be able to work with personnel at Delta T more closely than another firm located out west.

“So certainly the geographic relationship, as well as the quality of product impacted the decision,” according to Matthew Menges.

Delta T has been in the business for more than 20 years and has served as a supplier to the plastic injection molding industry for a while, but it was not being represented in sectors where Menges Roller is represented, such as plastics, flexible packaging and converting. Menges Roller has become Delta's representative in those areas.

“We had a great feeling that we were joining forces with the right people,” Matthew Menges said.

Jochen Naujokat, president of Delta T, said he bought the company in December 2012 from its two retiring owners because he wanted to grow the business.

While the roots of Delta T are in the plastics business—mainly plastic injection molding—the temperature control units are a fit for any industry with processes that need heating or cooling. The company serves about 23 industries with various applications, Naujokat said.

Through the process of expanding into markets where the company was not represented well, Naujokat said he found Menges Roller.

“They are a good brand name in the heat transfer rolls,” he said.

Menges Roller sells to the converting industry, and most of its customers who need a roll also need some form of heating or cooling. With this partnership, Menges Roller has the ability to offer turnkey or complete systems solutions for customers.

“Otherwise, the Menges customer would need to go out in the market and find someone, like us, on their own,” Naujokat said.

While this new partnership continues to be marketed, Delta T already has about a dozen active quotes with customers, showing Naujokat that even though it's early in the relationship, it is already showing that it can be successful.

Michael DiGiacomo, a Paratherm representative, had a similar sentiment. He said the agreement is new, but that the company has had a good partnership in place with Delta T.

“They recommend our fluid for a lot of their systems,” he said.

Menges Roller recently won the Association of International Metalizers, Coaters & Laminators 2014 Technology of the Year Award for its innovations in computational fluid dynamics thermal molding for heat transfer rollers.

Menges Roller said until recently, designing liquid-filled thermal rollers has been very difficult, especially when specific temperatures needed to be achieved. The rollers are in rotary motion, and speed and physical components must be considered.

Plant managers and engineers actually have been known to guess the size of heat transfer roller they need. This is why Menges Roller is using CFD Technology—traditionally used by NASA and the medical sciences—to eliminate the guesswork.

Menges Roller said the firm's engineers can generate models and images showing, for example, “changes in temperature if the roll diameter is increased by 3 inches” and “the exact temperature variation across the rollface, given the use of 316 stainless steel at 0.578 inches.”

These advancements and innovations helped to earn Menges Roller the award, the company said.