Document LJj5ew0G3raMe56r7odNDon43

PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT RICHARD O. WEST, JR. District Sale# Manager INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS <S'apf o/ rfeO.'?&// OFFICE: 617 528-5191 & 617 762-7842 / GAF Corporation P. 0. Box 6158, Franklin, Massachusetts 02038 gciF BIRD 011002 3?06A 6 66 24M R O 4"8 Ik Reply to MEMORANDUM _______n,,,,, H/2/72 Fr,,w_____BBQTn BB- Mr. Heim ASBESTOS FELT COMPLAINT; GAF COBPOBATION_________________________ I have reviewed the attached^ file as requested and agree that there isn* t anything we should do until we receive a reply from Bob Kalte's letter of September 14th. It is difficult for me to believe that there is.anything we could do during the saturating process to cause delamlnatlon of the asbestos felt unless there was something abnormal about the dry felt which contributed. The Norwood plant has experienced delamination with GAF asbestos felt during runs of asbestos Base Sheet, however they were fortunate enough to discover it in the finish rack and set it to one side. I understand from Mr. Plummer that the Norwood plant has received credit from GAF in the past for rolls of dry felt that delaminated. At the present time the Norwood plant has two requests for credit with GAF on recent runs of asbestos felt which delaminated. Before settling these requests GAF has requested that they have a technical man follow a run at Norwood and this is being arranged for some time next week. In the event that we do not receive a favorable response to Bob Kalte's letter I suggest we wait for the results of the run at Norwood, being planned for next week, before taking any further action on the Pacific Division request. CAHoman/rp ) BIRD 011003 From: To: H. F. Kooumann .L.-.Iraucci MEMORANDUM Date: 8/10/72 Subj: Defective 15# Asphalt Saturated Asbestos Felt Shipped to Southwest Roofing Supply References: Complaints 23-468-2-6,7, 8 My memo to you dated 23 June 72 We have received the attached reply from GAF. Laboratory tests on the sample they submitted with their reply showed 51% saturation in the poorest part of the sample. This 7* saturation is quite normal for the product. We cannot accept GAF's suggestion on lack of penetration of the asphalt into the felt as an explanation of delamination. Both GAF and Bird have saturated asbestos for many years, and we're sure they know as well as we that asphalt saturated asbestos is always brown inside as compared to black on the outside surfaces. .Furthermore, the sample returned to us was delaminated to about the middle of. the sheet. We tried to delaminate it further, and tried delaminating from the other edge, but failed. Yet the middle of this portion of the saturated felt was no browner than the delaminated portion. We now believe that the delamination was caused by some inherent characteristic of the felt even before it was saturated. To support this, we believe we obtained evidence of a greater concentration of glass fibres on the delaminated side of a desaturated sample than on the finished side of that sample, when specimens were examined under the microscope. As we still had a fair amount of the same saturating run of saturated asbestos at Martinez at the time (this phenomenon was called to our.' attention, we checked for delamination here. We couldn't find any rolls that would delaminate. We have not had any field complaints other than out of Southwest Roofing Supply. We therefore believe thatthe defective material is isolated in that shipment. We understand that not all of the, 1200 rolls in quarantine at Southwest Roofing Supply delaminates easily, but that finding defective rolls requires destructive testing-and probably means going through every roll in stock. This does not appear practical. On the basis of the above information, we recommend that you ask GAF for credit on (1) the value of 1200 rolls of defective product at Southwest Roofing .Supply, and (2) our costs to settle complaints referenced above. v 1 0 HFK/plc W. A. Costa j C. A. Homan R. M. Jochums R. L. Kalte -->5 I//;.; j G. D. Page ' G. H. Schmoldt F. W. Wood ,, !$ & 1:1 BIRD 011004 REl'D MAii. if;;:;-'- 72 (HJG 14 m 8; i5 BIRD & SON, inc. B/RD 011005 5 'J 3 1 j ) 5 n 3 6 A F Corporation 140 West SI Street New York, New York 10020 Telephone (212) 582-7600 July 19, 1972 Mr. H.F. Koopmann Supervisor of Technical Projects Bird & Son 110 Waterfront Road Martinez, California 94554 Dear Mr. Koopmann: Your letter of June 9th, outlining the delamination problem you have experienced, has been brought to our attention. We have examined representative samples and, although your letter indicates that you have reviewed the method of saturating the paper that was run on February 25th, we feel that from the .sample available to us that there seemed to be a lack of uniformity of saturation from one side to the other of the roll. We are attaching a portion of the sample that we had to examine, ajfd wonder if you had noticed this condition in the rolls that, are now in storage in Phoenix. Over*the years, we have run into various types of delaminating problems and, while moisture content will contribute to this problem, we feel that since your test indicated that you had between 45% and 49% saturation that moisture was not the cause in this case. We did note also that your indentation did not penetrate the thickness of the material completely. We have found that this lack of penetration, for some unknown reason, tends to accentuate the tendency for paper to delaminate. While we are not familiar with all the details of your saturating process, we wonder if you are using scrapers to remove excess saturant, rather than squeeze rolls. We have found that excessive tension on the jumbo roll can cause delamination more easily when scrapers are used instead of squeeze rolls. . In checking our quality control samples of materials shipped to you in late 1971 and in early 1972, we could find nothing that would help us explain the problem you have described. We realize that we have probably not been of much help to you regarding this problem, but quite frankly we are at a loss to explain the reason for delamination, except for the items mentioned above. 3 V I ! 6 'i LBS/cm Enclosure Director of Marketing Industrial Products Division This leltor is on GAF Bond; it can be used directly for Oiazo Reproducti BIRD 011006 HEt'D A! MA*i. H'il;*'' ltm\k RH 8-. 15 8iBD & SON. inc. bird 011007