Press Release Reprint

The below press release was published in 2001.
It uses the original name we used for our ragglesticks at that time:
“Raq-L-Styx”
The information is good, so we have published again here.

PVC stacks up well in materials handling
By Jinida Doba

PLASTICS NEWS STAFF

The manufacturer says PVC Ragglesticks allow pipes and tubes to be stacked
higher and more efficiently than materials-handling products made of wood.
ALPINE, ALA. (Sept. 11, 3:30 p.m. EDT) – The materials-handling world,
where wood reigns supreme, steadily is opening up to plastics.
One company hopes its new PVC Ragglestick eventually may be comparable
to wood for transporting pipe, tubes and other cylindrical goods. Apparently
the first of its kind, the new plastic packaging product is said to offer
many benefits over traditional wood counterparts.

Dwight L. Moody is president of Raq-L-Styx Packaging Inc. of Alpine, which
was born out of pipe-maker parent Hawk Plastics Corp. – also of Alpine.
Ragglesticks earned Moody and his partner, A. Eugene Davis, a patent in
1999. The products were created as a solution for stacking Hawk’s pipes of
various sizes without having to build frames, and to allow higher stacking
on flatbed trucks, Moody said.

“The wooden Ragglestick is the next best thing to plastic ~ the problem is
they don’t allow you to get as much pipe on the truck as plastic,” Moody
said in a telephone interview from Alpine. “(Hawk has] an 8-inch sewer pipe
that is very popular. Without Ragglesticks, all you can possibly get on a
truck is 5,148 feet. “With Ragglesticks, you can add another layer of 8-inch
pipe and 5,6l6(feet),” he said.

Wood blocks widely are used to secure rolling objects for shipping, and are
relatively cheaper. Moody said the most expensive plastic Ragglestick costs
about 71 cents, while a wood one would be about 60 cents. But since the
company can load more goods with the plastic variety, the plastic
Ragglestick quickly pays for itself.

The products are extruded at the 22,000-square-foot facility, which can
process 10 million pounds annually. Moody said the firm currently processes
about 3 million pounds annually, generating sales of about $2 million.
Using recycled material could bring down the raw material price a bit, but
right now qualify specifications preclude the use of post-industrial PVC in
the Raq-L-Styx invention, Moody said.”We do think, down the road, there is an
excellent opportunity to use post-industrial scrap like PVC siding compound or
profile window compound,” Moody said. “The Ragglesticks themselves make an
excellent candidate for recycling. Once they hit the job site, we tell folks … we’ll
pay for the freight to get them back.”

The plastic Ragglestick does not splinter, resists
water damage, insect and rodent infestation, and has a longer reuse cycle
than wood products. Another advantage, Moody said, is the ability to print
packaging specifications directly onto the plastic Ragglestick, which takes
guess work out of trying to load products of varying sizes.