The 200,000-square-foot facility is upgrading its vertical wet paint line and converting to a chrome pretreatment system that will be fully operational in March. These changes will improve product quality and system performance.
In early 2011, the company will complete a $1.5-million upgrade to the handling system for one of its 7-inch extrusion presses. This will improve product surface quality, reduce scrap, and increase productivity.
Over the last 15 months, the Monett facility revamped its material handling and aging processes, consolidated fabrication operations previously located at Cassville, Missouri, and expanded second-stage manufacturing capabilities. An expansion of an existing furnace, completed in December 2010, significantly increased the facility’s remelt capacity for recycling aluminum. The plant also ceased manufacturing Hydro’s M2000 sliding patio door product line, which was sold to Architectural Metals Inc. of St. Louis, to focus its extrusion business on parts and assemblies.
“These investments, along with the addition of engineering personnel, allow Monett to assist customers with increasingly diverse requirements, and to take our quality and service to new levels,” said Rhonda Wright, Extrusion North America unit vice president and general manager in the Central Region. “While some in the aluminum industry remain hunkered down, Hydro continues to invest in its facilities and personnel so that we can support our customers.”
About Hydro
Extrusion North America is a unit of Norsk Hydro, a global supplier of aluminum and aluminum products. Based in Norway, the company employs 23,000 people in 40 countries and has activities on all continents. Rooted in a century of experience in renewable energy production, technology development and progressive partnerships, Hydro is committed to strengthening the viability of the customers and communities it serves.
In North America, Hydro provides aluminum solutions including supply sourcing, extrusion, finishing, and fabrication of components, as well as engineering and contract manufacturing services, for a variety of industries. For more information, please visit: www.hydro.com/northamerica.
