The Shop in Pictures — Soremag, Laval, Quebec

Coulée à chaud de polyuréthane rouge dans un moule à denture autour d'un moyeu d'acier — surmoulage sur métal, Soremag

Recouvrement & moulage

Hot casting onto a steel hub

Liquid red polyurethane pours into a toothed mold, around the steel hub. This is metal overmolding: the teeth and the hub end up as one part.

Pose du couvercle sur un moule rempli de polyuréthane rouge, surplus aux évents — moulage ouvert, Soremag

Recouvrement & moulage

Closing the mold

The top plate goes onto the filled mold. The slight overflow rising at the vents gets machined off after cure — it is how we know the mold is full.

Pièces en polyuréthane coulé dans leurs moules d'acier en cuisson contrôlée au four — Soremag

Recouvrement & moulage

Controlled cure

Cast parts go into the oven in their steel molds. Temperature and time are controlled: this is where the polyurethane takes on its final properties.

Technicien Soremag coulant du polyuréthane liquide rouge depuis un dispenseur automatique — Laval

Recouvrement & moulage

Metering at the dispenser

Liquid polyurethane poured into a graduated beaker from the automatic dispenser. The ratio is checked on every batch, before anything reaches a mold.

Gros plan sur l'usinage CNC d'un moule en aluminium à l'atelier Soremag — Laval (Québec)

Recouvrement & moulage

A mold being born

Close-up on the cutting tool and the aluminum. We build our molds in-house — that is what makes a prototype or a short run realistic, without injection tooling.

Trois mandrins de rouleaux neufs en inox, acier et aluminium à l'atelier Soremag — Laval (Québec)

Recouvrement & moulage

Three new cores

Small in stainless, large in steel, medium in aluminum — three different bearing journals, resting on wood blocks. When the core is beyond saving, we build a new one.

Rouleau nip en polyuréthane rouge en cours de rectification sur un tour à rectifier — Soremag

Meulage & finition

Grinding a nip roller

Red polyurethane on the grinding lathe, pink chips all around. Concentricity on a nip is decided at this station and nowhere else.

Long rouleau recouvert de caoutchouc nitrile/PVC usiné sur un tour à meuler — Soremag, Laval

Meulage & finition

A long roller on the grinding lathe

Mint green nitrile/PVC cover. Smooth and concentric over the full face — this is where the roller's behavior in service gets settled.

Roue en polyuréthane noir 95 Shore A finie au couteau sur un tour — Soremag, Québec

Meulage & finition

Knife finish

Black polyurethane wheel, 95 Shore A, finished with a knife on the lathe. Some durometers call for the knife rather than the wheel.

Rouleaux recouverts et rainurés par Soremag : rainures longitudinale, circonférentielle, hélicoïdale et diamant

Meulage & finition

A family of groove patterns

Longitudinal on EPDM, circumferential on black HNBR, spiral on white FDA nitrile, diamond on gray polyurethane. The pattern follows what it has to clear away.

Réparation

Bringing a steel roller back to size

Machining the body on the lathe. Before anything gets covered, the metal has to come back to its original dimensions.

Lagging de poulie à motif diamant décollé par la traction — à refaire à chaud chez Soremag, Québec

Réparation

Lagging pulled off by traction

Diamond pattern on a pulley, cold-bonded, torn away by traction. We rebuild it hot and seamless — it is the only way it holds.

Rouleau au revêtement de polyuréthane orange brûlé et dégradé au centre — reçu pour reverse engineering, Soremag

Réparation

Burned right through the middle

Orange polyurethane cover degraded at mid-face, standing on its shaft in the shop. Wear like that says something about the line it came from.

Rouleau à rainure hélicoïdale usé par frottement — remise à neuf du revêtement en caoutchouc, Soremag

Réparation

A spiral groove worn away by friction

The pattern is still readable, but it no longer works. At this point it is the whole cover that gets rebuilt.

Avant / après

A sprocket, and its replacement

On the left, the teeth torn off. On the right, the new one: red polyurethane hot cast onto a keyed steel hub. Reproduced without an original drawing, from the worn part.

Deux cœurs de roue côte à côte — acier sablé prêt pour l'adhésion et cœur recouvert de polyuréthane, Soremag

Avant / après

The same wheel core, twice

On the right, the steel core stripped and blasted: bare metal, ready to bond. On the left, the same core once covered. Everything in between is preparation.

Relevé de cotes au pied à coulisse numérique sur un pignon usé, croquis coté et duromètre — Soremag, Laval

Reverse engineering

Measuring a worn sprocket

Digital calipers, a dimensioned sketch, a Shore A durometer. That is all it takes to reproduce a part whose original manufacturer is gone.

Bague en polyuréthane rouge usée à alésage ovalisé, échantillon pour reproduction sans plan — Soremag Québec

Reverse engineering

The sample is enough

Red polyurethane bushing, bore gone oval, tagged on arrival. It came in with no drawing — and that is perfectly fine.

Reverse engineering

A bushing under the calipers

Reverse engineering always starts with measurement. Only then does the question of material and durometer come up.

Technicien mesurant la dureté au duromètre Shore A sur un rouleau recouvert d'EPDM 65 antistatique — atelier Soremag

Contrôle & expédition

Durometer on EPDM 65

Shore A hardness reading on an antistatic EPDM 65 cover, quality control sheet alongside. Every value gets recorded.

Équilibrage dynamique d'un rouleau industriel sur banc d'équilibrage — atelier Soremag, Laval (Québec)

Contrôle & expédition

Dynamic balancing

Roller on the bench: supports, drive belt, vibration sensors. At speed, an imbalance the eye cannot catch shows up very clearly here.

Roue recouverte de polyuréthane rouge en contrôle qualité final avant expédition — Soremag, Laval (Québec)

Contrôle & expédition

The last inspection

Red polyurethane wheel on the bench with a Shore durometer, calipers, a dial indicator and an inspection sheet. Hardness, dimensions, concentricity, profile, bond — then it ships.

Caisson de transport en bois sur mesure fabriqué par Soremag pour protéger un rouleau recouvert — Laval (Québec)

Contrôle & expédition

The crate for the trip back

Custom wooden shipping crate built to protect a covered roller. A roller damaged in transit sends the whole shop back to square one.