Glebus Alloys puts 'trust' on display with products at ITEC

AKRON—Time and experience matter when building trust in a company's products and services.

The Glebus Alloys company has built such trust through its global manufacturing history, beginning over 50 years ago and originating from a well-known specialty powder metallurgy manufacturer Ceramet, founded in 1965 in Poland.

The company's global office is in the Czech Republic with regional offices and manufacturing facilities in Poland, Sweden and Stow, Ohio. The company works with several industries, including tire manufacturers, gas and steam turbines, offshore and marine, wind, hydropower, injection molding, mining and construction, and agriculture.

Glebus Alloys also has a long history of exhibiting at the annual International Tire Exhibition & Conference. Three representatives from the company—including James Parmelee, Dean Anderson and Rodokalis Rodokalakis—were talking with conference attendees at the 2024 event in mid-May.

Parmelee has over 30 years with the company and is the general manager located at the Stow site. He said they were talking to visiting companies about some of the firm's main products, such as the spring vents for tires, self-lubricating wear plates for tire manufacturing equipment and the DOT plugs for tire molds.

"We are exhibiting several products this year, including our self-lubricating wear plates as possible solutions for the rubber and tire industries," Parmelee said. "It reduces friction and wear, and offers efficient operations of machinery. Plus, the product is considered to be green because it eliminates the use of oil and grease-based lubricants."

Glebus Alloy's G-Metal Self-Lubricating Material is a maintenance-free, self-lubricating, high-performance sliding material. The metallic matrix of tin bronze, iron, iron-nickel-copper, nickel-copper-iron or nickel has solid lubricants such as graphite.

Glebus Alloys offers both Solid Metal (GSM) and bimetallic (GBM) solutions. Bimetallic products are made of stainless, low carbon steel backing or bronze covered with a sintered sliding layer. The G-Metal based product provides a number of positives for the tire and rubber industries, such as:

• Suitable for a wide range of movements and allowing construction and manufacturing of a wide range of complex shapes with consistent self-lubricating properties throughout the whole lifecycle of critical moving parts with maintenance-free operation.
• The product performs well in high-temperature environments up to 650°C and has good lubrication properties at temperatures as low as -200°C.
• G-Metal self-lubricating plain bearings and bushings with a sintered sliding layer are especially suitable for continuous operations in a demanding environment.
• Performs well in wet environments and removes fire hazards by eliminating grease.

Another product Glebus Alloys officials were talking with visitors about was the AGSV spring vents for tire curing, which the company reports are the only patented demountable solution available on the market.

The Glebus Spring Vent technology was commercialized in 2009-10 and is widely used in the rubber compound and curing world, according to Rodokalakis.

"Glebus Alloys has created a completely new technology and support system based on this patented product. The spring vent product is very specific to the tire industry," Rodokalakis said. "We are seeing increasing trends in the use of this product because it eliminates the need to trim tire hairs or vent spews on new tires. It is also considered green because it eliminates waste."

Anderson said Glebus Alloys offers customers complete installation, service and guidance through all steps in spring vents implementation into a manufacturer's production. Glebus Alloys can provide mold reworks from microvents to spring vents.

The team also was talking about its DOT (date of production) plugs for tire molds. Parmelee said the plugs offer fast installation and removal and a "Poka-Yoke" system to prevent installation mistakes.

Glebus Alloys also offers injection molding services for companies using the following materials:

• Thermoplastic Elastomers such as TPEE, SEBS and Santoprene;
• Thermoplastics
• Polyamide
• Polyethylene
• Polycarbonate
• Polypropylene
• ABS

"The company has seen a few trends in the tire and rubber industries, such as the need to update aging equipment," Parmelee said. "We are seeing a trend in the industry for the need of replacement parts for aging equipment and machines. We specialize in identification and designing metal parts replacements made from injected plastics."

Other services the company offers include plastic part manufacturing in small to medium quantities; special projects where a company can replace metal components with injected plastic parts; and research and development of new products.

The company also offers installation and maintenance of accessories in tire molds, on-site services and new product research and development.