About Urethane Specialists
Custom Urethane Parts, Made in Salinas Since 1990
Urethane Specialists designs, formulates, molds and machines polyurethane rollers, wheels and wear parts for a wide range of industries. Founded by an aerospace tool and die maker, now a division of Green Rubber Kennedy Ag.
The crew at the Harkins Road plant in Salinas.What we do
Precision urethane for machinery that cannot stop
Urethane Specialists manufactures custom polyurethane parts for processing, manufacturing and material handling equipment: rollers, wheels, sprockets, cams, impellers, bushings and wear parts. We work in urethane because it outlasts rubber, grips better than plastic and can be formulated for abrasion, impact, load, chemicals or food contact.
Everything happens in one shop. We cut the mold, mix the compound, cast and cure the part, and turn it to size on our own lathes. That is why we can hold tolerances in urethane that most shops would not attempt in metal, and why a plant engineer with a line down can get a replacement part fast.
Our core customers build and run vegetable harvesters, packing lines, cooling and processing plants, and industrial conveyors across California and Arizona. We also cast wheels for airport baggage systems and rebuild bogie wheels for rubber track tractors.
“Our success came from achieving high precision tolerances with urethane that most manufacturers wouldn’t attempt with metals, and from always being available to take those midnight calls from frantic plant engineers who just had to have replacement parts manufactured in a hurry.”Mike Hodge, founder
Our story
From missiles to manufacturing
Through the 1970s and 1980s Mike Hodge worked as a prototype tool and die maker for Hughes Aircraft’s missile division, machining components for anti missile systems with end mills measured in thousandths of an inch. When Hughes downsized in 1990, Mike and his wife Kathy took their savings to the California Gold Country and bought Sierra Elastomerics, a struggling plastic parts shop with six months of unfilled back orders.
Mike moved the shop from single component monothane to two part polyurethane, a far better engineering material, and renamed the company Urethane Specialists. The early years were lean. Mike kept a spare bed in the shipping room. Kathy trimmed and polished parts between answering the phone, and learned to cast and machine them herself so the orders would keep moving no matter what.
The business grew on word of mouth alone. Plant engineers who found USI carried the relationship with them from job to job. The shop molded the miniature cones that ringed the speed skating tracks at the 2002 Winter Olympics. When Hershey’s flag rollers, the ones that insert the paper strip in every Kiss, were lasting only six weeks, Mike formulated a urethane that stretched them to six months and cut wrapper defects on the line.
In 2020 Urethane Specialists joined Green Rubber Kennedy Ag, another family run manufacturer and distributor serving the same growers, packers and processors. The Hodges’ standard for precision and the midnight call still define how the shop runs today.
Inside the shop
Drawings, calipers and a lathe
PMA Regulatory Compliance Program
Green Rubber Kennedy Ag, including Urethane Specialists, is recognized under the Polyurethane Manufacturers Association Regulatory Compliance Program at Level I Commitment and Level II Compliance for environmental, health and safety practice. FDA compliant urethane formulations are available for food contact parts. Ask us for the material documentation your application requires.
Visit or call the plant
Urethane Specialists, Inc.
1094 Harkins Road
Salinas, CA 93901
Mailing: PO Box 7177, Spreckels, CA 93962
Or drop a part at any Green Rubber Kennedy Ag branch: Salinas, Watsonville, Greenfield, Santa Maria, Modesto, Bakersfield, Imperial and Yuma.
Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Pacific
Start a conversation
Send a drawing, a photo or the worn part itself. We will come back with a quote.
800-499-1818
sales@urethanespecialists.com