Advanced Blending Solutions LLC has expanded its facility in Wallace, Mich., to accommodate increased demand and create a better working environment for employees.
The expansion, which cost the company just north of $3 million, includes an additional 40,000 square feet of assembly, warehouse and office space, doubling the company's cutting and milling spaces and adding a new indoor break area, outdoor break area, conference room and production offices for employees. The company said the added square footage to fabrication and assembly areas also enables ABS to do electropolishing in-house.
“We are currently running at 130 percent of manufacturing capabilities,” Brent Berquist, Advanced Blending Solutions' vice president of sales and marketing, said in an email. “Once we have fully moved in and process solidified, we will be back down to roughly 90 percent manufacturing capability.
“If we did not pull the trigger on this expansion, there would have been no feasible way to produce our expected forecast for 2018 in-house,” he added.
Advanced Blending Solutions, which manufactures blending and material handling equipment for the plastics industry, has also added a new road to the backside of its facility to allow better access for vehicles and shipments.
In addition to the site work and road, the company invested nearly $700,000 in new equipment, such as a high-capacity forklift, multiple crane systems and a manual lathe.
The company has nearly 100 employees at the Wallace facility and headquarters. Over the next year, Berquist said it plans on adding more workers in welding, assembly, controls engineering and project management, among other areas.