EBAA builds new foundry to meet growing water industry demand

EASTLAND, TX, Oct. 19, 2006 -- Construction of a new Greenfield foundry in Eastland, TX, will help EBAA Iron take advantage of new technology for the ductile iron casting industry and meet demand for its patented products for water and wastewater pipeline installations, the company announced yesterday.

EBAA, now in its 43rd year, is a provider of joint restraint products for ductile iron and PVC pipe. It ships millions of units per year of mechanical restraint devices along with a variety of specialty ductile iron fittings.

The newest addition to EBAA Iron facilities is tentatively scheduled to open in February 2007 at the company's corporate headquarters. The Mouat Co. of Irondale, AL, a well-known foundry systems and engineering firm, engineered the project. The new foundry is being constructed by local contractors from the Eastland Area.

"Our new foundry will enable EBAA Iron to continue to meet its goal of manufacturing and delivering the best joint restraints available in today's market," said Earl T. Bradley, president of EBAA Iron. "EBAA Iron customers and end-users will benefit from the latest methods, techniques and equipment we are installing in this new foundry. Our company continues to grow."

The company is constructing the new foundry despite the trend toward fewer iron foundries in the US. The federal government's Census Bureau reported 733 iron foundries in the US in 1992, but officials from the American Foundry Society said only 619 were in existence in 2004.

"Construction of a Greenfield foundry is almost unheard of today," said Dick Meade, EBAA's manager of plant engineering.

Meade said the new foundry will be comprised of 58,500 square feet and include four areas. There will be two molding areas, a room for core operations and a facility for scraphanding and melting that includes two coreless furnaces. There will also be facilities for shakeout and cleaning to allow for recycling of gating and sand before the products are moved to another building for finishing, powder-coating and final assembly.

The new foundry will produce 24- and 30-inch retainers on a high-speed line, and all rings larger than 30 inches will be cast on a separate molding line along with the Flex-Tend line of flexible expansion joints.

Meade said the new foundry will improve the ergonomics of EBAA Iron facilities and make the company more environmentally friendly.

"This will be a more pleasant place to work," he said. "For instance, there will be a robot function for heavy lifting instead of that having to be done by our people.

"We have essentially built a building inside a building to separate our noisy, dusty operations," he said. "The state-of-the-art equipment is better for the environment because of its features for fume and dust collection. We will have a more efficient and a more productive place to work."

For more information on the company and its products, visit www.ebaa.com

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