IF there is one thing snow and ice control equipment customers abhor, it’s rust.
When truck bodies and truck equipment have to operate in and around today’s highly corrosive ice-fighting chemicals, customers demand materials that withstand such harsh environment.
To meet demand for products made of aluminum and stainless steel, Buyers Products is expanding capacity. The company has purchased a 550,000-sq-ft building in the same industrial park as its existing manufacturing operations.
The company has been working this summer to set up production in the new place.
“We had to rehab the building,” says Mark Saltzman, president. “It had been in foreclosure, and we needed to reroof it and repave the area around it, not to mention setting up our production lines. We did all of that with our own staff.”
The fruits of that labor are beginning be evident. The aluminum facility is now up and running, which has boosted capacity for products such as toolboxes and hydraulic reservoirs.
The stainless steel line will follow. Many of the company’s models of spreaders are made of stainless steel. To avoid disrupting production, the company will wait until after the season is over to set up the spreader line and production of other stainless steel products such as snow plows, toolboxes and dump body inserts.
New machine tools, jigs, and fixtures have been added for to the new aluminum line. Stainless steel production also will be retooled. The aluminum line received two new press brakes, a new punching machine, and a second robotic welding cell. The stainless line will add a new press brake and a new laser cutter. It will be the sixth laser that Buyers Products operates.
Some tooling from the existing production areas will be relocated to the new building.
“If there are any tools or fixtures that are used in aluminum, stainless, and carbon production, then all tooling will be new because we will need it in both places,” says Dave Zelis, Director of Sales and Marketing. “In addition, new tooling will be developed and produced as well. Since our throughput has increased so much in the recent past, new tooling is necessary to increase production.”
When complete, the building will house an 80,000-sq-ft production area for aluminum and a 90,000-sq-ft area for manufacturing stainless steel products. Another 60,000 square feet will be designated for assembly and packaging of parts.
The company plans to position this facility for continuous growth and production expansion. As the aluminum and stainless steel products continue to expand and evolve, additional production space and equipment will be added to fuel the product line growth.