Super Brush Buys First Extrusion System from American Kuhne

PR Log (Press Release) – Oct 23, 2009 – (American Kuhne, Inc., Ashaway, RI, October 26, 2009)… Super Brush, LLC is a leading global manufacturer of foam swabs, applicators, and probes for the pharmaceutical, medical device, dental, clean room, and industrial markets. The company produces over 3,000 styles of foam swabs and applicators in their new Springfield, MA manufacturing plant.

Due to their continued growth, Super Brush determined a need to increase their applicator handle manufacturing capacity. “Our product demand has really grown and that justified the purchase of a new dedicated extrusion line for us,” said Brian Crawford, Engineering Manager for Super Brush. “Because of the critical nature of our products and tight specifications called out by our customers we did a lot of due diligence to make sure we had the right supplier to partner with.”

American Kuhne supplied Super Brush with a complete turnkey extrusion system that includes an Ultra series 1.75” (44mm) 24:1 L/D extruder with high performance Steward Barrier Screw. The system provides Super Brush with the flexibility to produce a wide variety of products including polypropylene tubing and profiles, and heavy wall, high-density polyethylene tubes.

American Kuhne has a strong reputation in supplying turnkey tubing systems into the medical marketplace with a tradition of exceptional process experience and outstanding service. Ed Steward, the Director of Process Technology, leads the company’s unmatched expertise in tubing process development. The company has helped many organizations enter into the extrusion business with their unique ability to assist them before, during and after the sale. “We do a tremendous amount of work to prove out our systems. We ran a lab line for them during their initial supplier investigation phase. Then we qualify the system at our facility by running a comprehensive factory acceptance test prior to shipping the system.  Once the system arrives at their plant we performed a complete on-site acceptance test to ensure that the system is running at peak performance. We also provide comprehensive operator training programs during these tests,” said Gary Siy, Regional Sales Manager. “It’s not only rewarding to get such a nice order but to get one from a brand new customer who puts their faith in you on their very first extrusion system means a lot.”

“We are very glad we chose American Kuhne on this project, and were sold on the quality of the equipment along with the factory acceptance test at AK prior to acceptance of the system and the ongoing training and support,” adds Mr. Crawford. “They met all our performance criteria and surpassed our expectations with the service and support they provided.”



About Super Brush

Super Brush LLC started as a family owned and operated manufacturing company more than 50 years ago. Super Brush invented the foam swab category and continues to lead it today.

Disposable and lint-free, Super Brush swabs provide the solution for applying drugs, adhesives, lubricants, chemicals, or other materials or for cleaning or removing excess materials. They manufacture over 3,000 styles of foam swabs and applicators in a growing variety of shapes and sizes in Springfield, MA. Visit them on the web at www.superbrush.com or www.swab-its.com.

About American Kuhne, Inc.
American Kuhne, Inc. is a leading worldwide supplier of single screw extruders, feed screws, extrusion systems and extrusion process controllers. Customers range from small custom extrusion shops to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies. They rely on American Kuhne products for superior design and value, as well as American Kuhne’s engineering and service specialists for exceptional long-term support. AK was founded on three basic core values: Supply the most advanced machinery with the best process support and outstanding customer service.