BRANCHBURG, NJ  - Anyone traveling America's highways has seen them - flatbed trailers rolling along, cargo held securely in place by Kinedyne's bright yellow tie-down straps. But now, that widely recognized strap is changing.

While continuing to build on its four decades of experience, Kinedyne is also actively expanding its global presence. Recently, many of the company's webbing products were changed to incorporate black edges, gold color webbing, and a new stencil pattern. Specifically, the changes to Kinedyne's standard strap assemblies are:

• Many of the company's most popular 2-, 3-, and 4-inch-wide strap assemblies are now manufactured with black edges on both sides of the webbing.

• In addition, all 2-, 3-, and 4-inch-wide Winch and Ratchet strap assemblies previously constructed with yellow webbing are now produced with gold color webbing.

• Many of the strap assemblies impacted by these changes will also feature a revised stencil pattern that includes the "Working Load Limit" (WLL) of the strap assembly - in both pounds and kilograms - and the Kinedyne logo, all clearly marked at regular intervals on the webbing.

"We've introduced this color change on our strap assemblies in an effort to develop a standard product that we can sell to our markets worldwide," explains Jim Calico, Kinedyne's vice president of sales and marketing. "The gold webbing with black edges has been sold to our customers in Canada for years - now, we're making it our global standard. This new color scheme also serves as a differentiator versus some of our competitors. But even though the color is changing, our customers can be sure they'll continue receiving the same high quality Kinedyne product that they have for many years."

The new WLL Working Load Limit stencil serves as a back-up to the information already printed on the Warning & Ratings tag on strap assemblies. Current regulations require a downgrade of the WLL limit to 1,000 lbs. per inch of width if the tag is either missing or no longer legible. Kinedyne's new WLL stencil meets the requirements of this regulation by printing the WLL and manufacturer information directly on the webbing.

For most Kinedyne customers, these revisions will be seamless, since none of the changes required a revision to existing Kinedyne part numbers for strap assemblies. Products in the new color will be shipped from Kinedyne facilities once inventory of the older, yellow color straps is depleted. In an effort to help customers manage their inventory, the outer case of all shipments of the new, gold color, black edge webbing will be marked with an orange colored sticker to help easily identify new inventory.

Customers may contact Kinedyne Nationwide Customer Service (800-848-6057) for more information or with questions regarding any of the company's standard or custom stenciled webbing products.