ARDL celebrates opening of new facility
Bruce Meyer, Rubber & Plastics News
ARDL President Bonnie Stuck shows off the layout of the firm’s new home.
Akron Rubber Development Laboratory
ARDL celebrated the grand opening of its relocated site in Barberton, Ohio.
Bruce Meyer, Rubber & Plastics News
CEO Tim Samples said his father, ARDL's Bob Samples, never could have imagined the company growing enough to occupy a 134,000-sq.-ft. facility on an 11-acre site.
Rubber & Plastics News
Greg Simms has served as the project leader on setting up the new site for Akron Rubber Development Laboratory since 2016.
Bruce Meyer, Rubber & Plastics News
At the recent grand opening, ARDL unveiled a plaque dedicating the site to its founder, Bob “C.R.” Samples, who died in 2015.
Bruce Meyer, Rubber & Plastics News
A look at some of the testing equipment at ARDL's new facility.
Akron Rubber Development Laboratory started searching for a new home for its business in 2014. It wasn't until 2016 that one of the firm's owners came across the 134,000-sq.-ft. building in Barberton that would become its new home. ARDL then started the planning process with the architect in 2016-17 and lining up contractors. The design process took the rest of 2017 and into 2018, and then it was another year until the 57-year-old firm moved into the first 30,000 square feet of renovated space in the new building as the company eventually looks to consolidate from its current three buildings into just the new Barberton site.