Malarkey Roofing Business Opportunity Gets A Boost From SafeRack

G4Series Gangway System helps roofing-product manufacturer expand customer base

Malarkey Roofing Products recently completed an upgrade to its truck-loading area at the Portland, OR, plant to the SafeRack G4 Series SAS Gangway system.

SUMTER, SC, November 9, 2009—Headquartered in Portland, OR, and with additional production facilities in the Southern California town of South Gate, Malarkey Roofing Products has spent the past 50-plus years earning recognition as one of the leading roofing-product manufacturers on the West Coast. In this role, Malarkey offers a full line of residential roofing products and one of the most advanced lines of commercial roofing systems.

Rightfully proud of its history of product innovation, Malarkey earlier this year accepted the opportunity to expand its product line even further, a decision that would require some modifications to its truck-loading area at the Portland plant.

“We had a new business opportunity to produce a modified asphalt that we would be shipping out of the plant to distributors and end-users,” explained Scott McDaniel, Malarkey Roofing’s Operations Manager. “We had always been a consumer of asphalt and most of the other asphalt that we handle is inbound. With this new operation, we started by bottom-loading the new asphalt, which we found presented a lot of safety issues for our people.”

Knowing that a better loading method would need to be identified and implemented in order to make this new business venture a success, McDaniel contacted Mike Bauer, a Sales Manager with Peterson Industrial Products, Inc., Portland, OR. Peterson Industrial happens to be a distributor of gangway and fall-protection equipment from SafeRack, LLC, of Sumter, SC, the world’s leading provider of stronger, safer and easier-to-handle truck loading-rack and fall-protection equipment.

“Scott told me they had a new product that they needed to load and that they needed a way to load it more safely,” said Bauer. “I showed them your catalog and he liked what he saw.”

What McDaniel found was a SafeRack G4 Series Self-Adjusting Stair (SAS) Gangway that would give Malarkey Roofing the truck-top access that would enable its employees to start safely top-loading the asphalt. The SAS model incorporates stair treads that articulate and self-level to accommodate the varying heights of vehicles, a crucial consideration at the Premier Modified Asphalt facility. The gangways are also constructed using metal-stamping technology and a tool-and-die process to cut out pieces of aluminum, which are then bent into the required shape, eliminating the need for as many welds and creating a stronger, more durable gangway. Other features of the G4 Series equipment include spring-loaded gangway and platform operation, slip-resistant tread on the stairs, safety orange handrails and mid-rails, heavy-duty bumpers and four-rail design for maximum fall protection.
 

There was one potential snafu, however, that had to be overcome before the new equipment could be installed: “We are loading out of an old area of the plant,” said McDaniel. “It was a tight footprint that we had to put the equipment in and SafeRack worked with us to make sure the equipment fit in the space that was available.”

The equipment was installed in June 2009, and since then, it has been full-speed ahead for Malarkey Roofing and its new business opportunity.

“It’s a real simple rack, it’s real intuitive and the guys don’t have any trouble with it; the equipment is very user-friendly and easy to use,” said McDaniel. “The biggest benefit is the improved safety and it helps make the loading quicker. Overall, it’s performed very well; we’ve had zero trouble with it.”

The initial performance has been so eye-opening for McDaniel that he also said he would consider turning to SafeRack gangways for an upgrade to the fall-protection equipment that is currently being used in Malarkey’s railcar-unloading area.

The SafeRack SAS (Self-Adjusting Stair) G4 Gangway incorporates stair treads that articulate and self-level to accommodate varying heights of vehicles.

For more information on any of SafeRack’s products or solutions, please contact Tom Semiklose, Vice President Sales, at (866) 761-7225 or tsemiklose@saferack.com, or visit www.SafeRack.com.

SafeRack, LLC, is committed to providing stronger, safer and easier-to-handle truck and railcar loading-rack and fall-protection equipment. Headquartered in Sumter, SC, SafeRack has more than 200 years of combined experience in offering the food/pharmaceutical, specialized chemical, pulp and paper, building products, plastics, cement, mining, petroleum, biodiesel and ethanol industries high-quality equipment that has been customized for each customer’s unique loading applications. For more information, please visit www.saferack.com.