Post Time：Jun 12,2009Classify:Company NewsView：435
Glass maker Zeledyne is pushing ahead with a $4 million upgrade at its plant despite troubles in the automotive and construction markets.
Zeledyne LLC started work this month to install a $4 million cutting system that will be used to cut custom glass for architectural projects. The project should be completed late this summer.
Zeledyne, which was formerly owned by the Ford Motor Co. and went by the Ford Glass name, has about 500 salaried employees at its southeast Tulsa facility.
About three-quarters of the production at the furnace is for automotive glass. The rest is used for architectural glass, such as windows on skyscrapers.
The facility already has a machine that can cut glass to standard sizes, but the new machine will give Zeledyne the ability to cut glass to custom sizes and shapes.
Spokeswoman Della DiPietro said the company is looking to capture a bigger section of the architectural glass market as the construction sector begins to rebound.
The upgrade doesn’t give the factory the ability to produce more glass but allows it to produce glass for a new segment of the market. The Zeledyne factory now produces about 40 million square feet of glass a year.
Even with the upgrade, Zeledyne has not been without trouble during the recession. In December the company closed a furnace at the Tulsa plant and furloughed many of its workers.
DiPietro said the plant returned to full capacity several weeks later.
Even with the depressed automotive industry, she said the company is fighting through the downturn.
“I think generally it has been a relatively good year when you look at everything that is going on in the economy,” she said.
Source: TeledyneAuthor: shangyi
