Hand Knobs

• Innovative Colors Put Rogan In-Touch With New Markets

Rogan Corporation of Northbrook, IL, has a pretty good handle on their business. In fact, this two-shot injection molder has a handle on all sorts of businesses. Their PureTouch™ line of premium knobs and handles appear in such diverse products as automobiles and toys, power tools and lawn equipment, industrial hardware, and electronic controls. Recently, with the help of RTP Company, Rogan has taken a new approach to the way they, well, handle their materials.

Initially, RTP Company assisted Rogan in differentiating their products from those of its competitors by providing quick, accurate and cost-effective color concentrates. Currently, Rogan’s parts are available in nearly 20 distinct colors. Together, the two companies explored opportunities to cooperate and have done so with flair, making use of metallic and chroma-shift coloring systems in RTP 2700 S Series styrenic-based thermoplastic elastomer compounds. PureTouch™ Sales Manager, Chip Marshall, believes that outstanding new sales opportunities exist, “As a result of integrating RTP Company’s specialty compounds and resins, particularly utilizing its non-standard colors, like florescent green and metallic, with our products.”

With a Tensile elongation of 1300% and hardness rating of 55 Shore A, the SEBS compounds make the PureTouch™ products tough, durable, and comfortable in one step. According to Marshall, “The PureTouch™ products have an extraordinary look and feel to them. Not only are the products very appealing and attractive to the human hand ergonomically, but to the eyes as well.” Accurately, owner Edward Rogan likes to promote his company as a, “Proprietary molder of ‘sexy’ fasteners.”

When RTP Company introduced its newly developed ‘supercharged’ glow-in-the-dark materials, Rogan immediately saw potential for them in the field of safety items. From light blue and hot pink to vivid greens and oranges, the Glow-In-The-Dark PureTouch™ clamping products provide ideal solutions for low light applications where there is a need to set and re-set positions. By partnering with RTP Company, Rogan is even able to offer customers the opportunity to create their own customized colors.

RTP Company’s supercharged glow-in-the-dark technology utilizes inorganic pigments that quickly absorb ultra violet rays and then release them over extended periods of time. They are available in two classes-Type 1 and Type 2. Type 1 materials quickly gather a full charge, even in low UV light environments. Type 2 materials require approximately twenty to thirty minutes of relatively high UV exposure to fully charge; which makes them more appropriate for use in outdoor applications. RTP Company has equipment to test both the brightness and duration of glow for both material types and has formulated Type 1 materials capable of glowing ten times longer and ten times brighter than previous technologies.

While RTP Company has long been recognized as an outstanding supplier of custom precolored compounds, Rogan was quick to recognize them as also having the capacity and experience to deliver on time and in quantity. Recently, RTP Company has become the sole supplier of Rogan’s elastomer compounds. As noted by Herman Ruiz, Rogan Materials Manager, this dual ability is a vital part of, “A symbiotic relationship that has flourished due to constant innovation in our specific fields. RTP Company has a great product, that Rogan uses on its great hand hardware.”

Rogan Corporation of Northbrook, IL, is an industry leader in the field of hand hardware and fasteners and is an associate member of the National Fastener Distributors Association (NFDA), visit their website at www.rogancorp.com.

PureTouch™ is a trademark of Rogan Corporation.