Longwood expands Texas facility

BRENHAM, Texas—Longwood Elastomers is adding capabilities to serve the oil and gas market by adding equipment at its factory in Brenham.

The firm installed three thermoset presses and a rubber vacuum press within the last year, putting it in a better position to chase new business and growth opportunities.

Financial details were not disclosed.

"We're working with our customers and partnering with them to see what their needs are," Energy Industry Manager Sherry Adams said. "We've had some customers that have had more of a need on the phenolic side, or the thermoset, processing side. We've stepped up to the plate and have been able to provide the capacity that they needed for some products. It's helped them with their business and also helped us grow even with the market being down."

The firm added two 500-ton compression presses, a 400-ton compression press and a 300-ton vacuum compression press. The increased equipment is predominantly responding to increased business in oil and gas, however Adams said the vacuum press is being used for a variety of products as well.

The firm might not be done, as Longwood may add two more vacuum presses at the facility sometime in 2017, but the move is predicated on market conditions, according to Curtis McClamrock, vice president of sales, marketing and operations.

The current project did not create any jobs, but McClamrock said Longwood may add some positions during 2017. The facility currently employs about 100 people.

Diversification has been key to Longwood's success. While the Brenham plant originally was founded to service the oil and gas industry—and still does—the facility also serves the pump and valve, industrial, extruded marine, fender and dock pumper, and food processing markets with a variety of rubber molded products.

The firm is "optimistically hopeful" about what 2017 will bring for the oil and gas industry.

"It's such a huge market," McClamrock said. "We want to be a solutions provider. We try not to just ride the whims of the market. We want to try to go out and take pieces of the market that we didn't have before."

The site serves the food industry with hog paddles, produces wiper plugs and swellable castings for the drill sector of oil and gas, diaphragms for the industrial pump market and extruded goods for marine. It utilizes nearly all rubber compounds, including rubber-to-metal bonding products, and has calendering, extrusion, injection molding, compression/transfer molding and thermoset plastic molding capabilities.

"That gives us a lot of stability when oil and gas goes down and a lot of people are struggling to pay their bills and stay in business," McClamrock said. "We have a diverse enough base where we're able to weather the storm and continue to provide the services that we were able to provide when the market was good."

The 144,000-sq.-ft. building sits on 27 acres, but the expansion did not bring any additional brick and mortar. Adams said Longwood has improved efficiency through several lean-focused projects.

"We've been able to get more footprint out of the building through a lot of Kaizens focused on lean manufacturing," Adams said. "Making cells for certain product lines so that they're closer together, reducing the travel time for completing a product. We do quite a bit of cross-training so we can utilize a lot of different people in different areas. It gives us the ability to move people around."

Longwood Elastomers is part of Wabtec Corp.'s Elastomers Group, which consists of more than 500 employees throughout five facilities. Longwood operates two other facilities in Wytheville, Va. The remaining group facilities are located in Strongsville, Ohio, and Pittsburgh.