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Promotions Announced PROVIEW Goes Into Effect Accident and Sickness Benefits Insure May 1, 1986 Protection When You Can’t Work Page 2 Pages 4 & 5 Page8 A ^ w/^ C£ Clinton Mills Clothmaker // A/ u.S> 6y and For Employees of Clinton Mills April 1986 Update Maintains Commitment to Future Clinton Plant No. 1 Modernization Project Scheduled “Clinton Mills Plant No. 1 is scheduled to undergo a $12 million modernization prog ram beginning in the near future and extend ing through the middle of 1987, M saysJ. R. “Dick” Swetenburg, vice president of manu facturing. Fourteen Murata air jet spinning frames will replace 58 ring spinning frames now in production. To increase card room production to meet the new air jet spinning demands, two addi tional drawing frames will be installed. “A new warper and an extension to the present warper creel will be installed to accommodate 72" warper beams," noted Swetenburg. “A total of 165 Sulzer weaving machines will replace 519 fly shuttle Draper X-3 looms," added Swetenburg. “These new weaving machines will improve our produc tivity and quality and give us more flexibility in fabric widths and allow us to serve addi tional markets,” he added. Expenditures for capital improvements call for new traveling loom cleaners and the purchase of the latest material handling equipment for weaving. “In order to closely monitor weaving efficiency and machine performance," explained Swetenburg, “we will be installing a computerized loom moni toring system with monitors located strate gically throughout the weaving area," con tinued Swetenburg. “In order to accommodate larger cloth rolls, it will be necessary to replace a portion of the existing cloth room equipment with machines designed to handle wider cloth widths," explained Swetenburg as he re viewed the voluminous list of improvements planned for No. 1. Other planned projects include the mod ification of existing warehouse racks to store wider cloth packages, a modification of the plant’s beam handling system, and the in stallation of a new slasher and related re novations to the slasher room. When completed, Plant No. 1 will be a state of art yarn manufacturing facility and weaving operation. These expenditures re affirm Clinton’s commitment to the textile industry’s future and maintain the com pany’s heritage of continuously modernizing and seeking production methods to improve efficiency, working environment, quality and productivity." Bailey Plant $16 Million Renovation Project Completed A $16 million renovation to the Bailey Plant has been completed. The modernization project included re placing the original opening line and pickers with two Trutzschler Blendomat fiber feed ing systems. Other plant improvements in cluded in this phase were the installation of two intimate blend systems with chute feeds to the cards, and adding twenty-five Crosrol Cards to replace the old carding system. " The plant's combers have been updated by equipping them with an air doffing sys tem to allow stock to be transported automa tically back to the opening line for intimate blending with polyester. Comber noils are now removed and baled automatically. Six Zinser drawing frames with automatic doffing features have replaced the plant’s previous drawing system, and the spinning frames have been converted from a double creel to a single creel package system. Yarn preparation quality and efficiency have been greatly improved by replacing the plant's spoolers and quillers with eight Murata automatic winders. The Barber-Coleman warper creels have been replaced with two creels capable of using larger yarn packages and allowing more ends per beam. A new West Point wide head end was in stalled on the existing slasher to accommo date wider beams now being used on the Sulzer weaving machines. In order to handle beam storage more effi ciently, two beam carousels have been added which will accommodate 80 weaving machine beams. A Barber-Coleman drawing machine has been installed to draw patterns at the plant. A highlight of the renovation was the in stallation of 160 Sulzer weaving machines. These machines allow the plant to produce wider fabric width. The traveling cleaning equipment for the weave room has been modified to accommodate the new weaving machines. A computerized monitoring sys tem permits constant monitoring of weaving machine performance. Three new inspection frames have been added to the Cloth Room along with an auto matic conveyer system to improve the hand ling of wider width fabrics and larger cloth packages. In order to accommodate the larger size of cloth packages, the warehouse racks have been re-designed and modified to facilitate storage, bale location and expedite ship- (Continued on page 7) The Clothmaker Needs Pictures of Graduates The Clothmaker annually publishes a pictorial account of employees, their sons and daughters who are graduating from high school, colleges, technical education centers, business colleges, nurses training, adult education or other higher educational institutions. If you are a graduating senior or have a child who is a graduating senior, The Clothmaker would like to have a photograph to include in its 1986 pictorial record of graduates. Only those photographs submitted between April 15 and May 15 will be published. Please indicate the senior’s name, the school attended and the parent’s name on the photograph. Your assistant departmental superintendent will be pleased to answer any questions you have about getting a photograph in The Clothmaker. Due to the many stages which photographs must go through in the printing process, The Clothmaker cannot be responsible for photographs submitted for publication if they are lost or damaged. Chemical Control Program Established Throughout Company Clinton Mills has established a compre hensive program to minimize or eliminate employee’s exposure to chemicals which have a potential for causing short or long term ill effects. Working closely together with manufac turing, maintenance, and engineering de partments, the company has established a “Chemical Control Committee" which is re sponsible for full management and coordi nation of the chemical control program. Effective immediately, all designated pro ducts must be evaluated in accordance with data supplied on the material safety data sheets. New products must be approved be fore being accepted for use in any depart ment. During April, all Clinton Mills employees are being trained in the regulations require ments. Each work area has a complete list ing of material safety data sheets used by employees in that area. Each plant manager and nurse has a complete inventory of pro ducts used throughout the company. Employees have access to the data the company has available on any given chemic al product. Supervision has available volu minous amounts of data on chemical pro ducts used by the company. Departmental supervision will be pleased to explain the material safety data sheets on any given product. Individuals using chemicals should know the importance of reading labels, how to interpret them, and obey the instructions contained on the container or label. Supervi sion will apprise those handling chemicals on the best way to minimize exposure to themselves, co-employees and the environ ment. Some products used by employees may require the use of special safety equipment such as gloves, goggles, aprons, face shields, etc. Supervision, in such instances, will advise affected employees when to use this type of protective equipment. Due to the possibility of an unforeseen chemical reaction, the mixing of unused portions of chemical container contents will not be permitted anymore. All left over che mical products should be labelled and dis posed of in accordance with company policy. It is important that each employee have full knowledge of the new regulation, know in advance what chemicals he or she is ex posed to, and how to detect the presence of an unknown hazardous product in the work area. Each supervisor has been thoroughly trained in the requirements of the standard and will be pleased to answer any questions employees may have.