Guardian Industries Begins $80 Million Upgrade at California Glass Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--For the first time in 18 years, Guardian Industries Corporation (Auburn Hills, Michigan) shut down the production line at its 1 million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Kingsburg, California, so that an $80 million upgrade could get underway. Industrial Info has been tracking the progress of this project since July 2004. The project started as a $20 million float glass line upgrade. During 2004, Industrial Info was also tracking the progress of a completed $40 million expansion that added a technologically advanced glass coating line to the plant.

The $80 million investment includes: installing a $10 million state-of-the art air pollution control system that will reduce emissions by 50%; a major rebuild of its glass furnace to improve production capacity; converting the plant from fuel oil to natural gas for its power to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by about 15%; and performing maintenance repair on all production equipment and buildings.

More than 200 contractors paired with Kingsburg employees are working to modernize the plant. The massive furnace rebuild is being performed by Toledo Engineering Company (Toledo, Ohio). Improvements at the plant, which produces float, tempered and coated glass for energy-efficient windows and commercial buildings, are expected to be complete by June 2008. Guardian considered closing and opening another plant in another state, but because of the incentives and support of the local workforce of 300 employees, Guardian decided to stay in Kingsburg.

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