Product Description
Sandy Hill Corporation, based in Hudson Falls, New York, was a long-established supplier of stock-preparation and pulp-refining equipment to U.S. kraft and sulfite pulp mills, including double-disc refiners, pulp washers, and screening equipment. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Sandy Hill’s double-disc refiners incorporated chrysotile asbestos-fabric material bonded to the reverse face of the refiner plate castings — allegedly used as a thermal and vibration-damping backing between the plate and the refiner housing — and that the refiner shaft stuffing boxes were originally packed with asbestos-based braided packing rope rated for the wet, high-temperature service of a kraft pulp line.
According to publicly filed allegations, this asbestos configuration was carried forward across Sandy Hill’s refiner product line from the 1950s through the early 1980s and appeared in kraft mills across the U.S. Southeast, Gulf Coast, and Pacific Northwest.
Workers Exposed
Publicly filed asbestos complaints have allegedly identified the following trades as exposed to Sandy Hill refiner materials:
- Refiner operators unbolting, aligning, and running-in replacement double-disc plates
- Paper mill millwrights chipping, grinding, and dressing plate faces and backings during rebuilds
- Pulp-washer tenders adjacent during refiner shutdowns and packing changes
- Kraft pulp mill mechanics repacking refiner shaft stuffing boxes with braided rope packing
- Pulp mill maintenance electricians pulling motor and drive components on the refiner side
- Insulators wrapping refiner casings and adjacent steam lines