Read the video transcript
Did you work with Chemetron Corporation industrial heat-treat and annealing furnace access-door seals and hearth-plate gaskets, allegedly fabricated from asbestos-woven-cloth tadpole tape, asbestos rope, and CAF sheet stock for high-temperature door-frame sealing in Chemetron? According to publicly filed asbestos litigation records, it allegedly contained asbestos. Here is what it was, who was exposed, and who is responsible. Chemetron Corporation industrial heat-treat and annealing furnace access-door seals and hearth-plate gaskets, allegedly fabricated from asbestos-woven-cloth tadpole tape, asbestos rope, and CAF sheet stock for high-temperature door-frame sealing in Chemetron, sold from the 1950s until early the 1980s. Plaintiffs allegedly identified Chemetron Corporation industrial-furnace door seals and hearth gaskets as asbestos-containing in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation. Alleged chrysotile-fiber woven tadpole tape and asbestos rope door-frame seals installed around the perimeter of Chemetron industrial-furnace access doors, quench-tank hoods, and hearth-plate joints; alleged CAF sheet gaskets under burner-mount flanges. Released as friable fiber when seals were pried out, cut, or replaced during furnace re-line and quarterly PM by heat-treat operators and industrial millwrights. Workers allegedly exposed around this product included Heat-Treat Operators, Industrial Millwrights, Refractory Bricklayers, and Industrial Insulators. Asbestos claims are brought against the companies that made the products. If you worked with or around Chemetron Corporation industrial heat-treat and annealing furnace access-door seals and hearth-plate gaskets, allegedly fabricated from asbestos-woven-cloth tadpole tape, asbestos rope, and CAF sheet stock for high-temperature door-frame sealing in Chemetron and were later diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease, you may have a legal claim against the manufacturer. This is educational information from an independent publisher — not a law firm — and is not legal advice.
Product Description
Chemetron Corporation (Chicago, IL; historically parent of Selas Corporation and holder of industrial-furnace product lines including heat-treat and annealing furnaces) allegedly manufactured and marketed industrial furnaces to steel finishers, forge shops, and heat-treat job shops across the U.S. from the 1950s through the early 1980s. Plaintiffs alleged in publicly filed U.S. asbestos personal-injury and wrongful-death litigation that Chemetron industrial furnaces used chrysotile-fiber woven “tadpole” tape and asbestos rope door-frame seals around access doors, quench-tank hoods, and hearth-plate joints, and that compressed asbestos fiber (CAF) sheet gaskets were installed under burner-mount flanges on the furnace shell.
Plaintiffs further alleged that Chemetron-supplied replacement seal kits — furnished as maintenance items during quarterly preventive maintenance and full furnace re-line — continued to specify asbestos-fabric seal stock into the early 1980s.
Workers Exposed
Plaintiffs allegedly identified the following trades as exposed during Chemetron industrial-furnace service:
- Heat-treat operators loading and unloading through door frames and re-seating asbestos rope seals as they burned down.
- Industrial millwrights replacing door-frame tadpole tape and cutting fresh sections from spooled asbestos-cloth stock during quarterly PM.
- Refractory bricklayers stripping asbestos-rope hearth joints during full furnace re-line.
- Industrial insulators stripping and re-installing asbestos-fabric burner-flange gaskets during burner rebuilds.
Alleged exposure mechanisms included prying dry, brittle burned-down asbestos rope from door frames with a scraper, cutting fresh tape from bulk spools, and dumping spent seal debris into open scrap barrels.