Uniquely Positioned for Growth through Facility Enhancement
Market leadership requires investment of capital in the construction of new facilities that are compatible with new technologies as well as expansion of existing operations to meet increased demand and to improve productivity.
Curtiss-Wright's new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility is strategically located to supply large vessels and valves for the global oil and gas, petrochemical, power, water, desalination and chemical industries. The Texas site spans 12 acres, is located near convenient barge transportation and includes a 118,000-square-foot manufacturing facility that will house some of the most modern machining and fabrication equipment available.
The facility is capable of producing pressure vessels up to 38 feet in diameter inside the building, with unlimited size restraints in the lay-down yard. This expanded capacity will provide the flexibility to expand into new products and markets, increase our competitiveness on large-scale refinery projects and enhance our global market reach.
Investment fuels both our adoption of the latest production technologies to maintain high efficiencies and the opening of facilities in new geographic markets that are served more efficiently on a local basis. Investment in expansion is a competitive advantage in growing and high-value markets.
A new, state-of-the-art facility in Texas will be Curtiss-Wright's manufacturing center of excellence for the construction of super vessels, thick-walled pressure vessels, reactors and hydrotreaters and for modular fabrication in support of the global oil and gas industry. This facility will increase our manufacturing capacity and reduce our costs, while improving our overall competitiveness and expanding our product offerings. The commitment to build this facility, which is scheduled to open in 2011, demonstrates the critical role that energy markets will play in our future growth.
Curtiss-Wright supports the growth of manufacturing in rapidly developing economies by establishing local surface treatment capabilities. Our Metal Treatment facility in Jiangsu Province, China, serves the aerospace, automotive, medical and chemical industries in and around the industrial center in Shanghai with controlled shot peening services, as well as advanced lubrication and corrosion protection coatings technology.
Our new surface treatment facility in Galway, Ireland, supports that country's significant medical device industry. This new facility offers parylene coatings technology, wherein thin polymeric coatings are applied in vacuum chamber environments. These biocompatible coatings provide moisture and electrical protection for medical as well as electronic devices. After originally adding this technology to our portfolio of services through an acquisition, we are migrating the parylene coating capability to other sites in the U.S. to capitalize on geographic market opportunities.
A key part of success requires a strong commitment to developing capabilities in-country and building long-term relationships in target global markets.
Along with a new sales office in Shanghai, a new business center in Suzhou, China, supports our rapidly expanding Motion Control presence and activities in China and throughout the Far East. Our 23,000-square-foot Suzhou facility will significantly enhance our ability to deliver locally manufactured products to industrial and aerospace customers and thereby strengthen our global competitiveness in the motion control market.
(Above Left) Benshaw is a market leader in supplying critical motor control and protection solutions for leading OEMs and industrial customers. This business unit has reinforced our competitive position by integrating all facets of its U.S.-based manufacturing process — previously dispersed among five different locations — into a single 183,000-square-foot facility. Benshaw now designs, develops, manufactures and delivers its advanced industrial motor controls and drives from one lean, state-of-the-art environment.
(Above Right) In 2010, Curtiss-Wright opened a new dedicated coating facility in Galway, Ireland, to service the U.K. region's medical device industry. The facility has the capability to apply parylene coatings in a clean room environment to a broad variety of medical device components. We now offer specialty parylene conformal coatings in five North American and European facilities.
Likewise, the Curtiss-Wright Flow Control segment is opening a sales office in the China World Center in Beijing to facilitate better access to key customers in the commercial nuclear, oil and gas and petrochemical industries.
Our Flow Control segment is also consolidating the motor controls and drives operation in Shanghai into its existing facility in Tianjin, China. This strategic integration will better position the company for increased customer support and continued growth in China. The Flow Control operation in Tianjin earned ASME certification for its spring-loaded and pilot-operated pressure relief valves, allowing valves manufactured, set and tested within China to be sold into any market requiring ASME certification.
In North America, Motion Control's Embedded Computing division completed a significant expansion at its Ottawa, Ontario, manufacturing facility, adding 30,000 square feet of space to accommodate an expansion of engineering and production capabilities.
(Above Left) The Metal Treatment facility in China successfully achieved Nadcap accreditations in 2010 for Surface Enhancement and Chemical Processing. These approvals demonstrate the facility's ability to meet the demanding quality system and process control requirements of the international aerospace community. By combining shot peening and coating application processes in one plant, Curtiss-Wright's Suzhou, China, facility provides its aerospace customers with a "one-stop shop" for surface treatment services.
(Above Right) Our Integrated Sensing division is upgrading the CNC machining infrastructure at its Tempe, AZ facility to reduce costs through efficiency improvements while increasing capabilities. This initiative, along with a lean and continuous improvement culture, will continue to enhance our manufacturing leadership for the aerospace market.
In response to unprecedented growth in the digital signal processing and high-density processing product lines, Embedded Computing also relocated its headquarters to a new 20,000-square-foot facility in Ashburn, VA that is strategically located closer to a number of key customers.
Motion Control's Electronic Systems division completed an expansion at its Littleton, MA facility to accommodate the integration of the Hybricon engineered electronic packaging group acquired in June 2010.
To meet increasing demand from our commercial aerospace, defense and industrial customers, we expanded our Integrated Sensing division's manufacturing facility in Nogales, Mexico, adding 26,000 square feet of space to the existing facility, which is ISO 9002 and AS9100 certified.
Our capital investments reflect our history of adapting to changing demand by continually reshaping our facilities' infrastructure in order to meet the critical current and future advanced needs of our global customers.