Product Description
Bird Machine Company, the industrial equipment division of Bird & Son / Bird Incorporated of East Walpole, Massachusetts, was a long-standing supplier of pulp dryers, centrifuges, and mechanical separation equipment to U.S. pulp and paper mills. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Bird pulp dryers were supplied with, and serviced using, chrysotile asbestos-fabric wrap material applied to the pulp-dryer roll surface as a release-and-thermal layer, and that the pulp-dryer hood enclosure was insulated with molded asbestos-block panels to retain steam temperature and cut condensate losses.
According to publicly filed allegations, this asbestos configuration was carried forward across Bird’s pulp-dryer product line from the 1940s through the early 1980s and appeared in kraft, sulfite, and market-pulp mills throughout the U.S. Northeast, Southeast, and Pacific Northwest.
Workers Exposed
Publicly filed asbestos complaints have allegedly identified the following trades as exposed to Bird pulp-dryer materials:
- Paper mill millwrights unwrapping and rewrapping asbestos-fabric roll wrap during rebuilds
- Pulp-dryer operators working the machine face during hood-panel change-outs
- Insulators and pipe coverers cutting and fitting asbestos-block hood panels
- Pulp mill maintenance mechanics performing bearing and doctor-blade overhauls
- Paper mill electricians pulling drives adjacent to hood insulation
- Kraft mill helpers cleaning debris after hood-panel and roll-wrap tear-out