SCHMIDT MARKER REDUCES MARKING TIME BY 87.5 %

"Should have switched 10 years ago"

GARDEN GROVE, Calif. (Oct. 5, 2001) - Rick Hill, plant manager at Catalina Cylinders, had three criteria for a new marking system - it had to be fast, safe and quiet.

The Geo. Schmidt 175-MPC hydraulic roll marking machine met these criteria and more.

"The marker we had been using for almost 10 years took about 8 seconds to imprint the marks we needed on our cylinders," said Hill, with a complete cycle time, (loading, marking and unloading the cylinder) of up to 30 seconds. "The Schmidt marker does the same job in 1 second, for a complete cycle time of about 8 seconds."

Catalina produces aluminum cylinders for oxygen, CO₂ , scuba diving, fire extinguishers and various other uses. Each is marked, not on a nameplate, but directly on the cylinder, with five pieces of information - cylinder specifications, pressure rating, serial number, date of manufacturer and the company's name.
"We turn out thousands of cylinders a day," said Hill, "and one of the most inefficient parts of the operation used to be the marking process. The machine we used to have was a completely manually operated imprint stamping machine. It was slow and noisy."

The Schmidt roll marking machine worked so well, Hill ordered two more, both of which are a little larger than the one he has now.

These new units will be integrated right into the production line that will accept the various cylinders after they are pressure tested. A specially engineered device will position the cylinders in the roll marker and then re-position them to continue down the line.

The Schmidt machine also provides a cleaner, clearer mark. "I should have switched to Schmidt 10 years ago," said Hill.