DALLAS—Chiorino Inc. has opened a new branch in Dallas as it looks to extend its reach to provide better service to its distributors in the southern part of the U.S.
The firm also unveiled new products at the NIBA—The Belting Association conference held recently in Palm Springs, Calif.
Chiorino needed the facility in Dallas to give distributors in that part of the country quicker access to more products and numerous services offered by the belt maker. The company, a subsidiary of Biella, Italy-based Chiorino S.p.A., operates out of its North American headquarters in Newark, N.J. The addition gives the company two plants in the U.S.
Its lightweight belts are made at the parent company's plant in Italy and shipped to the Newark location for custom fabrication, distribution and servicing.
With the new facility—called Chiorino Inc. Dallas—fully operational in Texas, belting earmarked for that part of the country will be shipped directly from Italy to the new site, and the work will take place there.
Branch Manager Shawn Scanlon heads Chiorino Inc. Dallas' plant, which offers complete in-house fabrication and belt inventory, according to Eugene Torres, national marketing and training manager for the Italian company's North American operation.
He said personnel at the site, which spans about 5,312 square feet and employs five so far, will handle on-site belt surveys; conveyor and power transmission belt installation; custom fabrication; die-cutting various materials, including rubber and Teflon; conveyor belt trouble shooting; engineering support; product training; and 24/7 on-site service.
Its small work force, which Torres said is expected to grow, has more than 80 years of experience in the belting field, the company said.
“When we have jobs calling for bigger belts or larger volumes to be produced, we'll continue to handle them in Newark, where we're highly automated and we can turn them around quicker,” Torres said. It also will work with distributors in the Eastern and Midwest portions of the U.S.
Its Dallas facility will be a regional support center and handle mostly smaller jobs, he added.
A producer of rubber, silicone, poly-urethane, PVC and nylon conveyor, process and flat transmission belts, Chiorino has been experiencing solid growth and needed to expand to handle it, Torres said.
He said it is looking to add more distributors and expand in other states in the future.
On the product front, the firm has come out with a unique offering, called HP Compact, a new concept in the field of conveyor and process belts, he said. “It's a family of products, and HP stands for high performance polyurethane.” The line of products features flat belts and round belts.
With a smooth or positive drive, he said, benefits of the belts include a maximum level of hygiene, no deformation, no cracking and superior resistance to all cleaning and sanitizing procedures.
HP Compact belts are aimed at the food industry, specifically bakeries, confectionaries, meat and poultry. The line “goes beyond the application limits of both modular and monolithic belts, reinforced or not, commonly found in the market,” according to Torres.
Another new line, he said, is weldable rubber belting, called X-Weld, which uses a hot air device to apply the rubber cover rather than glue or adhesives, “which means that there are no contaminants from adhesives in the process.”
Weldable rubber is used in timing belts and V-guide transport belts.