THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN

THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
BOARDMAN -- An industrial magnet manufacturing and repair plant on Bev Road that halted production in February 2000 has a new owner, new production schedule and plans for a growing work force.
Magnetech Industrial Services, with headquarters in South Bend, Ind., bought the former Meade Industrial Services plant in August and already has rehired some of the 21 workers laid off when the Meade plant stopped making magnets.
"Laying off those workers was the hardest thing I ever had to do," said Loren Hecker, who was company president when Meade owned the plant and is now serving as Magnetech's operations manager. "That's why I'm so excited to see this place starting up again."
Meade kept only five employees at the Boardman facility when it turned the site into a service center -- one production and maintenance person and four sales people. All production was moved to its Hammond, Ind., plant.
Magnetech bought the Boardman and Hammond sites, Hecker said, and is in the process of moving back some of the manufacturing equipment that had been relocated to the Indiana facility.
Hecker plans to have four sales and five or six production workers on staff by late August, and he'll hire former Meade employees whenever possible. He said he expects to build the work force to 35 eventually.
"But we want to stay as lean and mean as we can," cautioned Dan Love, plant manager and also a former Meade employee.
Name will continue
The Boardman plant is Magnetech's sixth location and will mainly serve businesses between New York and Chicago.
Magnetech will continue to use the Meade name on its products because the name has a good reputation in the industry and its former owners are no longer in the magnet business.
Unlike simple metal magnets, the magnets produced at the Boardman plant are electrical devices and are magnetic only when electricity is applied. They are constructed of steel, hollowed out to contain coils of copper or aluminum to conduct the electricity.
Love said the facility can produce magnets ranging in size from 1 pound to 38,000 pounds, with larger magnets having a larger lifting capacity.
The Boardman plant will generally concentrate on magnets in the 2,000-pound to 15,000-pound bracket and ranging from 16 inches to 100 inches in diameter.
Magnets are used in many industries, including steelmaking, steel processing, slag recovery, water filtration and coal processing. Magnetech provides magnets to industrial customers across the United States, he said, and to international customers in Korea, Egypt, Venezuela, Thailand and elsewhere.
Industrial magnets can be dangerous if not used properly, Hecker said, so Magnetech offers free training seminars for its customers' operators. The training schedule can be tough.
"We go to our customers, and we work around their schedules when we plan the training," he said, grinning. "I've done seminars at 2 a.m. I don't like it, but it's the only way."
Other Magnetech facilities are located in Indianapolis, Mobile, Ala., and Huntington, W.Va.
vinarsky@vindy.com