Taber Extrusions held a ground-breaking ceremony for the expansion of their Russellville Friction Stir Welding facility which included State Representative Steve Womack amongst many other state and local leaders.

Taber Extrusions held a ground-breaking on April 23rd, 2019 for a 60,000 square foot expansion of their Russellville facility. There will be a considerable capital investment and approximately 20 jobs will be created. The expansion will house a state-of-the-art friction stir welding operation.

This new technology has applications for military, bridge building, railroad refrigerated containers, and more – and brings with it the technology to develop new products. Taber currently employs 142 associates in Russellville at their aluminum extrusion and fabrication company, and is owned by National Material, L.P. Taber has operated at the Russellville facility since 1976.

“Expansion of existing industry is the largest creator of jobs in our city, state and nation. Paul Harvel, our President, first met with Taber about this project in the fall of 2018. This began the process of our support of Taber in their efforts to win this expansion for Russellville.” Said Russellville Regional Alliance for Economic Development Chairman Mike Duncan.

Present for the ceremony and announcement were Ted Riddle, President and COO of NMLP, Eric Angermeier, President of Taber Extrusions, Gavin Butterworth, Plant Manager, Al Hatcher, Controller, Jason Weber, VP Sales and Marketing, Congressman Steve Womack, State Senator Breanne Davis, Pope County Judge Ben Cross, Russellville Mayor Richard Harris, AEDC representative Bentley Storey, and Russellville Regional Alliance for Economic Development President, Paul Harvel. Several Alliance and Russellville Chamber board members, and Red Coat Ambassadors were in attendance. Partners with Taber for this project are Kirby Construction, and Bond Technologies.

Congressman Steve Womack described how he sees Taber’s role from a national perspective, “The expansion of an existing company such as Taber Extrusions means a lot more than the location of a new company. It means that Taber is in the right place and has what it needs to succeed. Taber plays an important role in the defense of our nation with products that are an asset to our defense capabilities.” It is important to note that Taber historically provides for many industries, including aerospace, shipbuilding, infrastructure, automotive, as well as military and defense.

Taber is already known for their wide range of capabilities, both broad and unique, and Mayor of Russellville Richard Harris thanked Taber for choosing Russellville as their location, “The fact that you chose to expand and add new technology here is the highest compliment you can give the city and citizens where you live and work. Economic development and job creation is one of our top priorities. We congratulate Taber on this advancement.”

About Taber Extrusions

Taber is a minority business enterprise which is AS9100, NADCAP, and ABS certified. Founded in 1973, Taber Extrusions originally pioneered a process for extruding rectangular billet which enables the company to extrude solid profiles up to 31 inches wide or hollows up to 29 inches. Taber expanded with the purchase of an extrusion facility in Gulfport, MS., in 1995 which houses a cast house and two additional presses, and multiple expansions of value-added fabrication services. Taber continues to extrude billet in a wide range of alloys and sizes, including 7”billet molds, and has diversified its markets beyond military since its inception to include aerospace, automotive, marine, infrastructure, and sporting goods, among many others. For these markets, the company supplies extruded products in a variety of soft and hard alloys. In 2018, Taber added ultra-precision extrusions to their capabilities allowing them to further serve customers in electronics, computer, and medical industries. Today Taber is proud to announce yet another exciting launch into Friction Stir Welding.

The addition of in-house Friction Stir Welding capabilities at Taber Extrusions creates a vertically integrated supplier of FSW panels and assemblies never before seen in North America. Bond’s and Taber’s engineering and manufacturing teams collaborated at a very high level to create a custom Linear Seam machine based off Bonds LS7 Model Precision Dual Head Long Panel Welder.

Taber Extrusions of Russellville, AR. and Gulfport, MS. announces the addition of Friction Stir Welding capabilities to their existing portfolio which currently includes aluminum extrusions, fabrication, billet casting, and micro-extrusions. The addition of in-house FSW capabilities creates a vertically integrated supplier of FSW panels and assemblies never before seen in North America.

Eric Angermeier, President of Taber Extrusions is enthusiastic about their acquisition of a new Friction Stir Welder at their Russellville, Arkansas manufacturing facility, “Besides the additional jobs and revenue this expansion will bring to our central Arkansas community, we are very much looking forward to Taber’s new horizons into technology and product development. The welder will be housed in a new 60K square foot expansion to our current Russellville facility. This equipment further promotes our strategy of moving Taber toward being a solutions-oriented company offering highly engineered products. This Friction Stir Welder, with the latest technology, is purposely built for the long, wide extrusions being produced on our current extrusion presses. This process gives us the added benefit of vertical integration allowing us to not only better serve our existing customers, but gives us the opportunity to develop new markets and products.”

“As a leader in the Aluminum Industry, Taber works with clients in military, government, aircraft and aerospace, shipbuilding, infrastructure – and so much more. The aluminum extrusion shapes they are creating for these clients are absolutely ideal for Friction Stir Welding technology,” said Dave Hofferbert, President of Bond Technologies, Inc. “It’s been our pleasure to work with Taber to make FSW implementation possible and bring the known benefits of FSW to their production process.” Bond Technologies, located in Elkhart Indiana USA, is a leader in Friction Stir Welding machinery, tools and process.

Sometimes described as more of a forging process than actual welding – Friction Stir Welding is a solid- state joining technique used to join metals not easily fused with traditional welding. Ideal for metals such as aluminum, copper and other metal alloys, FSW is commonly used in the aerospace, rail, automotive, shipbuilding, transportation and marine industries. Friction Stir Welding makes possible very high-quality welds with minimal distortion. It is also a process that can be easily automated, making it an ideal solution for industrial use.

The FSW machine was tailored designed for Taber to maximize the use of Taber’s wide profiles. With this machine Taber’s capabilities will surpass all current FSW machines in its capabilities to FSW large double sided thick profiles with minimal cycles of the machine. Less cycles means greater efficiency and more precise results. Bond’s and Taber’s engineering and manufacturing teams collaborated at a very high level to create a custom Linear Seam machine based off Bonds LS7 Model Precision Dual Head Long Panel Welder. A FSW production cell capable of welding double wall hollow extrusions up to 6.25 inches tall, 32 inches wide and 65 feet long, to create panel assemblies 200 inches wide by 65 feet long with integrated pre-joining profile trimming. The Taber extrusion operations in Russellville, AR and Gulfport, MS as well as associated extrusion capacities from other NMLP related companies will provide the extruded profiles.

“This was an obvious next-step for Taber. The company was founded in 1973, and never stopped diversifying, adding new capabilities, and technologies. We are known for aluminum extrusions, fabrication, billet casting, ultra-precision extrusions. Friction Stir Welding was going to happen eventually. Taber Extrusions is prepared to develop new products.” said Jason Weber, Vice President. of Sales and Marketing , Taber Extrusions.

Taber is already known for their wide range of capabilities, both broad and unique. An upgraded cast house in their Gulfport, MS. location was also featured in Light Metal Age, which makes Taber’s mindset known: they really are planning to shape the future of aluminum extrusions. Having one of the largest presses in North America alongside the capability to offer micro-extrusions – and virtually everything in-between cements Taber’s position a leader in the aluminum extrusion industry. In a separate article in Light Metal Age, Weber states, ““It’s about having all the different capabilities we can. One of the taglines we use is ‘Shaping Endless Possibilities.’ With the extensive variety of things we can do—from micro-extrusions to wide profiles and everything in between—Taber embodies that message.”

About Taber Extrusions

Taber is a minority business enterprise which is AS9100, NADCAP, and ABS certified. Founded in 1973, Taber Extrusions originally pioneered a process for extruding rectangular billet which enables the company to extrude solid profiles up to 31 inches wide or hollows up to 29 inches. Taber expanded with the purchase of an extrusion facility in Gulfport, MS., in 1995 which houses a cast house and two additional presses, and multiple expansions of value added fabrication services. Taber continues to extrude billet in a wide range of alloys and sizes, including 7”billet molds, and has diversified its markets beyond military since its inception to include aerospace, automotive, marine, infrastructure, and sporting goods, among many others. For these markets, the company supplies extruded products in a variety of soft and hard alloys. In 2018, Taber added ultra-precision extrusions to their capabilities allowing them to further serve customers in electronics, computer, and medical industries. Today Taber is proud to announce yet another exciting launch into Friction Stir Welding.

Thank you for your continued support of Taber Extrusions, LLC. If you have any questions please visit taberextrusions.com or contact jweber@taberextrusions.com.

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Leading aluminum extruder Taber Extrusions announces the planned addition of 7”billet molds to their extrusion billet casting facility in Gulfport, MS. Taber’s addition of the 7” molds further enhances Taber’s existing offering of extruded aluminum billet products to Taber’s newly refurbished Gulfport Casthouse.

Taber Extrusions, LLC is announcing the planned addition of 7”billet molds to Taber’s existing extrusion billet casting facility in Gulfport, MS. Taber’s addition of the 7” molds further enhances Taber’s existing offering of extruded aluminum billet products to Taber’s newly refurbished Gulfport Casthouse. 7” extrusion log will be available for delivery beginning in January 2019.

The addition of the 7” molds complements the existing 8”, 9”, 11”, 16”, and 20” diameter molds. The various diameters of extrusion billet will be available in 6063 and 6061 alloy chemistries as well as specialized chemistries upon request. “Taber is excited to offer extrusion logs to our fellow extruders.” says Jason Weber – VP Sales and Marketing at Taber. The Gulfport Casthouse is uniquely situated with port access as well as easy access to industrial scrap. These input factors coupled with the recently refurbished casting equipment with the LARS® in-line degassing and purification system supplies billet chemistries and consistencies which rival those of larger billet producers.

A recent article by Light Metal Age Magazine explains how the completion of Taber’s casthouse modernization increased its billet capacity by over 30%, expanded its range of high quality aluminum alloys (hard, soft, marine, aerospace, and defense) and enabled the use of more diverse scrap material in its process, allowing for the production of billet with high recycled content.

About Taber:

Founded in 1973, Taber Extrusions originally pioneered a process for extruding rectangular billet which enables the company to extrude solid profiles up to 31 inches wide or hollows up to 29 inches. Taber expanded with the purchase of an extrusion facility in Gulfport, MS., in 1995 which houses a cast house and two additional presses, and the fabrication area has been expanded multiple times. Today, Taber Extrusions is proud to announce the launch of expanded capabilities to include micro-extrusions and 7” billet molds.

Thank you for your continued support of Taber Extrusions, LLC. If you have any questions please visit taberextrusions.com or contact one of Taber’s Regional Sales Managers.

Follow Taber Extrusions
LINKEDIN: https://www.linkedin.com/company/taberextrusions/
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/taberextrusions/
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/taberextrusions