Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Sustainable Plastics
  • Plastics News China
  • Rubber & Plastics News
logo-pn-color
Subscribe
  • Login
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • News
    • Processor News
    • Suppliers
    • More News
    • End Markets
    • FYI Charts
    • LSR World
    • Multimedia
    • NPE2021
    • K Show
    • Special Reports
    • Top materials of injection molders
      Recycled PET use by product category
      US PET, flexible packaging desintations
      Global fluropolymers additives market: CAGR
    • NPE exhibitors question handling of deposits for canceled trade show
      Exhibitors back NPE cancellation: ‘We couldn't take that risk'
      NPE2021 canceled as in-person event
      NPE reviews its options as pandemic prompts exhibitor to exit
    • Injection Molding
    • Blow Molding
    • Film & Sheet
    • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
    • Rotomolding
    • Thermoforming
    • Recycling
    • Machinery
    • Materials
    • Molds/Tooling
    • Product news
    • Design
    • What Keeps You Up At Night
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Sustainability
    • Public Policy
    • Material Insights Videos
    • Numbers that Matter
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Automotive
    • Packaging
    • Medical
    • Consumer Products
    • Construction
    • Videos
    • Galleries
    • Podcasts
    • CEO Issue
    • Best Places to Work
    • Processor of the Year
    • Rising Stars
    • Women Breaking the Mold
  • Opinion
    • The Plastics Blog
    • Kickstart
    • Heavy Metal
    • One Good Resin
    • BRICS and Plastics
    • All Things Data
    • Viewpoint
    • From Pillar to Post
    • Perspective
    • Mailbag
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Recognizing Plastek Industries for all-around excellence
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
    • Kickstart: Live, from Shenzhen, it's an in-person trade show
      Kickstart: Yes, this 'paper' bottle is really plastic, and yes, it's a bad look
      Kickstart: Plastics ready to take flight on Mars
      Kickstart: Let's hear it for leftovers
    • Heavy Metal: Coronavirus edition, plus the work of working from home
      Don't put off succession planning
      What's a good gift for your cobot? Batteries?
      Here's some big ideas to mull over the holidays
    • PE resin trends highlighted in Shell report
      Dow's Lowry honored by World Economic Forum for sustainability work
      Africa impacts new colors from Ampacet
      Plaskolite marches into madness with its own online bracket
    • Climate debate in Washington increasingly includes plastic
      There was no choice but canceling NPE still a big deal
      The business case for producer responsibility
      Think divided government stalls plastics legislation? Think again
    • Annual PN LSR directory grows
      Want prices? Introducing historical resin pricing, now available in a downloadable form
      A new annual ranking: Top processor gains
      Thermoformers: Would you believe a 12 percent gain?
    • Working from home: Rugrats edition
      Nypro's Gordon Lankton left the plastics industry a better place
      Let's look forward, rather than back, to mark COVID anniversary
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
    • PEX pipe maker Uponor donates $30,000 for Texas storm relief
      Virtual pitfalls derail exhibits for builders' trade show
      PPI puts $200 bounty on exhumed HDPE conduit
      Raise the roof: Housing starts hit a 12-year high
    • Perspective: Making the best of working from home
      Perspective: The Materials Wars: Is plastic actually better?
      Perspective: Plastics manufacturers — a surprising contribution to sustainability
      Plastics industry business owners: Listen to your future workforce
    • Mailbag: Additional fees for electric vehicles ‘unfortunate'
      Mailbag: Where's the plastics industry's response to critics?
      Mailbag: Manufacturers struggling to follow COVID-19 safety rules
      Modernizing recycling infrastructure will benefit businesses as well as the environment
  • Shop Floor
    • Blending
    • Compounding
    • Drying
    • Injection Molding
    • Purging
    • Robotics
    • Size Reduction
    • Structural Foam
    • Tooling
    • Training
    • Maintenance can ensure efficient blender operation
      Dosing: Perfect for adding color
      Blending vs dosing: What you need to know
      Going low or high: Comparing volume
    • Colors and custom compounds
      In the laboratory: Compounding solutions
      Recycling content: Resins going ‘green’
      Compounding: Glass and other fillers
    • Dryer maintenance: Don’t err with air
      Dryers: Options for a shop’s process
      Dryer installation: Going central?
      Resins: Hygroscopic or non-hygroscopic
    • Electric injection molding presses: Efficiency is key
      Hydraulic injection molding machines
      Proper maintenance can prevent downtime
      Hybrid injection molding machines
    • Purging Hot runners: Open or closed methods
      Purging extrusion machinery
      Purging extrusion blow molding machines
      Purging: Chemical, abrasive and non-abrasive
    • Controls, special applications boost production, profitability
      Robot maintenance key for smooth operation
      High-speed robots: A rapid way to increase efficiency
      Robots: Every shape and size
    • Maintenance: Key for efficiency
      Shredders: Plastic in pieces
      Safety first for size reduction
      Granulators: The right fit
    • Video: Structural foam molding
      Structural foam molding: Flexibility for processors
    • Mold inventory: How many molds does a shop have?
      Molds: Innovation
      Mold changeover: Saving time and money
      How molds work
    • Labor: Apprenticeships may provide answer
      Internships: Solving the skills gap in-house
      College training, programs
      Lean Six Sigma: Transforming business operation
  • Events
    • Plastics News Events
    • Industry Events
    • Livestreams/Webinars
    • Ask the Expert
    • Polymer Points Live
    • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
    • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
    • Plastics in Healthcare Library
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Polymer Points Live - April 2021
      Polymer Points Live - February 2021
      Polymer Points Live - January 2021
      Polymer Points Live - December 2020
    • Plastics in Healthcare 2020
    • Plastics News Executive Forum
    • Plastics in Automotive
    • Plastics News Caps & Closures
    • Plastics in Healthcare
    • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
  • Resin Prices
    • All Resins
    • Commodity TPs
    • High Temp TPs
    • ETPs
    • Thermosets
    • Recycled Plastics
    • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
    • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
    • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
    • Historic Thermosets
    • Historic Recycled Plastics
  • Rankings
    • Injection Molders
    • Blow Molders
    • Film Sheet
    • Thermoformers
    • Pipe Profile Tubing
    • Rotomolders
    • Mold/Toolmakers
    • LSR Processors
    • Recyclers
    • Compounders - List
    • Association - List
    • Plastic Lumber - List
    • All
  • Data Store
  • Directory
  • More+
    • Classifieds
    • Digital Edition
    • Newsletters
    • Sponsored Content
    • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
    • ENGEL Sponsored Content
    • White Papers
    • Processor of the Year submissions
    • Sponsored By Bandera
      Bandera US was born for the North American market
      Sponsored By Ensign Equipment
      Filling systems customized for any process or budget need
      KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei retools in US with investment from parent ownership
      Sponsored By Mitsubishi
      Innovative new technology from Mitsubishi Engineering-Plastics Corporation helps reduce emission footprints
    • KraussMaffei
      Sponsored By KraussMaffei
      KraussMaffei Retools in US with investment from Parent Ownership
    • Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Tailored maintenance for injection molding machines and robots
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Improve maintenance efficiency with e-connect.monitor
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Maximum precision for lowest shot weights
      Sponsored By ENGEL Machinery
      Even more cost effectiveness for small precision parts
    • Shell Polymer
      Sponsored By Shell Polymers
      Food and beverage trends impacting the polymer industry
      Sponsored By Conexiom
      Use Sales Order Automation to free up time for CSRs to focus on customers, not manual entry
    • Place an Ad
    • Sign up for Early Classified
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
February 09, 2015 01:00 AM

Rogan thrives after 80 years by continuing to reinvent itself

Don Loepp
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print
    Don Loepp
    Rogan Corp. has been around for nearly 81 years, but keeps evolving to keep up with changing demands.

    NORTHBROOK, ILL. — Rogan Corp. is one of those unusual plastics processors that have been around for more than a few decades.

    But even though the Northbrook firm is nearly 81 years old, it still seems like a start-up company.

    That's because Rogan has constantly reinvented itself. The latest move is into custom work, including newer capabilities in clean room and liquid silicone molding.

    “We've changed many, many times over the years. That's how we've managed to survive,” said President David Schoessow, who's been with Rogan for 36 of its 80 years. (The company turns 81 in March.)

    Initially the company specialized in hot stamping, and then compression molding Bakelite knobs. In those early days, its expertise was in tooling and developing a wide variety of knobs. Rogan considers those proprietary products, and it still makes quite a few of them.

    Over time, the knob businesses changed. Remember how early microwave ovens had knobs instead of touch pads? Have you seen stoves with touch pads now, too?

    As the market changed, Rogan adapted. Customers moved from control knobs to clamping knobs, and then from analog to digital controls. So Rogan moved into injection molding, then two-shot molding, and finally LSR.

    The result is that Rogan has a lot of experience with different molding technologies. Now the company is pursuing more custom work, marketing its expertise to other companies.

    “We've had a proprietary product over the years. Now we're selling our capabilities to help customers solve the problems that they've had,” Schoessow said.

    Capitalizing on two-shot expertise

    One customer that's come on board is Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Constructive Eating Inc. The company makes colorful eating utensils for children, with designs like garden fairies and heavy-duty trucks.

    Constructive Eating turned to Rogan to take advantage of the company's two-shot molding experience. Previously, some of the Constructive Eating tableware was molded in Shenzhen, China, using a more labor-intensive overmolding technique.

    “I was looking for a two-shot molder specifically knowing that if we brought [the molding] back stateside, the only way we could make that work would be if we could reduce the labor of people manipulating the parts,” said Constructive Eating founder and CEO Carter Malcolm.

    “Rogan built the tool for the two-shot process. They gave us some good tips back and forth to improve the moldability. We worked to refine the design to be very conducive to that process,” Malcolm said.

    Malcolm said Rogan has “exceptional customer service. They're absolutely great to work with. We're constantly adjusting our quantities. They worked very hard with us to make sure we're not on back order.”

    Constructive Eating started working with Rogan in 2009. Now Rogan is making more tools — for new products that Constructive Eating will introduce later this year.

    Medical molding

    Don Loepp

    President David Schoessow has been with Rogan Corp. for 36 years.

    Rogan latest big investment is in medical molding. The focus is on close-tolerance molding that requires ISO-13485 and ISO-9001 quality certification.

    “We decided to leverage our capabilities with LSR, which is still not a capability that a lot of molders have,” Schoessow said.

    The company installed a hard-sided Class 100,000 clean room, and it's in a focal point in the factory — right at the front of the molding area, so it's the first thing visitors see on factory tours.

    One medical customer is Fresenius Medical Care North America. Rogan fabricates a critical manifold that's part of a hemodialysis fluidic set. Several of the components for the assembly are two-shot molded, according to Brian Kelly, a senior mechanical engineer for Fresenius, based in Lake Forest, Calif.

    “We had a medical device part that was designed with overmolded features on it, [and] we saw it as a candidate for two-shot molding, which is what Rogan is largely known for,” Kelly said.

    “They have been very responsive in addressing any issues with the molding of the parts, responding to design changes and accommodating our QA and regulatory needs,” Kelly added.

    “Rogan is a little unique as compared to other vendors we use, in that they have been transitioning from a mainline parts manufacturer to a medical device manufacturer. In this regard, they have brought in clean room equipment, upgraded processing protocols and have acquired certifications necessary to successfully fabricate medical device components,” he said.

    New relationship

    Schoessow said the move to custom molding meant having a more intimate relationship with customers.

    Moving into medical molding has meant investing in new equipment, training, and bringing expertise on staff to get the proper certification.

    The privately owned company posted 2014 sales of about $10 million, and expects to grow between 7 and 10 percent in 2015. Rogan has 65 employees and 27 molding presses. Three of the presses mold LSR, eight are two-shot machines, and three are vertical presses for molding thermoplastic. The rest are horizontal presses, ranging from 20-300 tons of clamping force.

    The newest machines are Sodick and Wittmann Battenfeld presses. The company has invested more than $1 million in new equipment in the past 18 months.

    It's also investing in its mold making operations — something that it's emphasized all the way back to the early days, in the 1930s. Last year Rogan installed a Makino PS65, as part of a plan to expand its tooling capabilities. It knocked down walls to expand the toolroom, and hired a mold making apprentice.

    The company was started by three Rogan brothers in 1934, and it's still in the family. While plastic knobs are still a big part of the business, the real corporate culture has been to invest in new processing  technology.

    “There's never been a time we haven't been encouraged to look at new equipment, and add technology,” Schoessow said.

    Letter
    to the
    Editor

    Do you have an opinion about this story? Do you have some thoughts you'd like to share with our readers? Plastics News would love to hear from you. Email your letter to Editor at [email protected]

    Get our newsletters

    Staying current is easy with Plastics News delivered straight to your inbox, free of charge.

    Subscribe today

    Subscribe to Plastics News

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram

    Plastics News covers the business of the global plastics industry. We report news, gather data and deliver timely information that provides our readers with a competitive advantage.

    logo-pn-color
    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI 48207-2997

    Customer Service:
    877-320-1723

    Resources
    • About
    • Staff
    • Editorial Calendar
    • Media Kit
    • Data Store
    • Digital Edition
    • Custom Content
    • People
    • Contact
    • Careers
    • Sitemap
    Related Crain Publications
    • Sustainable Plastics
    • Rubber & Plastics News
    • Urethanes Technology
    • Plastics News China
    • European Rubber Journal
    • Tire Business
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • News
      • Processor News
        • Injection Molding
        • Blow Molding
        • Film & Sheet
        • Pipe/Profile/Tubing
        • Rotomolding
        • Thermoforming
        • Recycling
      • Suppliers
        • Machinery
        • Materials
        • Molds/Tooling
        • Product news
        • Design
      • More News
        • What Keeps You Up At Night
        • Mergers & Acquisitions
        • Sustainability
        • Public Policy
        • Material Insights Videos
        • Numbers that Matter
        • Polymer Points Live
      • End Markets
        • Automotive
        • Packaging
        • Medical
        • Consumer Products
        • Construction
      • FYI Charts
        • Current FYI
      • LSR World
      • Multimedia
        • Videos
        • Galleries
        • Podcasts
      • NPE2021
      • K Show
      • Special Reports
        • CEO Issue
        • Best Places to Work
        • Processor of the Year
        • Rising Stars
        • Women Breaking the Mold
    • Opinion
      • The Plastics Blog
      • Kickstart
      • Heavy Metal
      • One Good Resin
      • BRICS and Plastics
      • All Things Data
      • Viewpoint
      • From Pillar to Post
      • Perspective
      • Mailbag
    • Shop Floor
      • Blending
      • Compounding
      • Drying
      • Injection Molding
      • Purging
      • Robotics
      • Size Reduction
      • Structural Foam
      • Tooling
      • Training
    • Events
      • Plastics News Events
        • Plastics News Executive Forum
        • Plastics in Automotive
        • Plastics News Caps & Closures
        • Plastics in Healthcare
        • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum
      • Industry Events
      • Livestreams/Webinars
      • Ask the Expert
      • Polymer Points Live
      • Reifenhäuser Technologies Livestreams
      • 2020 Caps & Closures Library
      • Plastics in Healthcare Library
      • Women Breaking the Mold Networking Forum Library
    • Resin Prices
      • All Resins
      • Commodity TPs
        • Historic Commodity Thermoplastics
      • High Temp TPs
        • Historic High Temp Thermoplastics
      • ETPs
        • Historic Engineering Thermoplastics
      • Thermosets
        • Historic Thermosets
      • Recycled Plastics
        • Historic Recycled Plastics
    • Rankings
      • Injection Molders
      • Blow Molders
      • Film Sheet
      • Thermoformers
      • Pipe Profile Tubing
      • Rotomolders
      • Mold/Toolmakers
      • LSR Processors
      • Recyclers
      • Compounders - List
      • Association - List
      • Plastic Lumber - List
      • All
    • Data Store
    • Directory
    • More+
      • Classifieds
        • Place an Ad
        • Sign up for Early Classified
      • Digital Edition
      • Newsletters
      • Sponsored Content
      • KraussMaffei Sponsored Content
      • ENGEL Sponsored Content
      • White Papers
      • Processor of the Year submissions