Product Description

Flender AG (Bocholt, Germany) and its Graffenstaden French plant supplied high-torque enclosed gear drives, cement-mill drives, and paper-machine section drives imported into U.S. cement plants, steel mills, and paper mills. According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, Flender gearboxes were allegedly assembled with asbestos-fabric shaft-seal packing, asbestos-fiber oil-seal rings, and compressed asbestos sheet housing gaskets on split-case joints and lube-oil manifolds. Flender rebuild kits allegedly contained asbestos gasket sheet and packing into the 1980s.

Workers Exposed

Millwrights, rotating equipment mechanics, gearbox rebuilders, and industrial maintenance technicians allegedly disturbed asbestos-fabric shaft seals and compressed asbestos housing gaskets when overhauling Flender cement-mill drives, paper-machine section drives, and steel-mill reduction gears.