BETHLEHEM, Pa.—Flexicon Corp. will double the size of its U.S. headquarters to celebrate its 40-year anniversary.
The machinery supplier said it is investing about $7 million to expand its existing headquarters by 91,000 square feet and populate it with production machinery and business offices. The expansion is scheduled to be open in June and will bring the total size of the building to about 180,000 square feet.
A Flexicon spokesman said in an email the expansion was necessary because the current facility, which was built in 2001, is no longer capable of meeting increased demand. The firm projects to add 50 jobs with the expansion, bringing total employment at the facility to 200.
“Doubling the size of our U.S. headquarters is a fitting way to mark Flexicon's anniversary and exponential growth,” Flexicon President David Gill said in a news release.
The new facility will double the size of the firm's steel forming, welding, grinding/polishing and blasting/painting departments, and nearly quadruple the size of its electrical controls department. The assembly department will be eight times larger and provide 38 feet of ceiling clearance for factory acceptance testing of larger systems, the firm said.
A spokesman said the finishing department has gained large-scale metal cleaning equipment that automatically prepares carbon steel components for the application of durable industrial finishes.
The office area will house six conference rooms, executive offices, the electrical engineering department and meeting/training rooms with 400-seat capacity.
Flexicon serves many industries, including rubber and plastics, where power and bulk materials are loaded, unloaded, conveyed, dumped, conditioned, weigh-batched, blended or packaged. The firm's machines can be used to unload resins and additives from railcars, bulk trailers and bulk bags, among other industry applications.
Rubber and plastics related machines account for about 10 percent of Flexicon's equipment sales, the spokesman said. It provides a variety of equipment lines, including flexible screw conveyors, tubular cable conveyors, pneumatic conveying systems, bulk bag dischargers, bulk bag conditioners, bulk bag fillers, bag dump stations, drum/box/container dumpers and weigh batching systems.