Holroyd opens specialist rotor manufacturing cell in US

13 December, 2018

Located in the thriving manufacturing centre of Spartanburg SC, the facility has been created to supply North America’s leading producers of industrial air, air conditioning and refrigeration equipment with compressor screw rotors. The result of a $12 million investment, it has been equipped with rotor milling and grinding technologies from PTG’s machine tool business, Holroyd Precision Ltd.

Establishing satellite operations

Holroyd Precision Rotors’ managing director, Colin Carr, said: “In cases where it is possible to identify a clear, high demand for very precise rotors, Holroyd looks at the opportunity and weighs the merits of investing locally in the equipment and systems to supply the market. The investment requirement is substantial, but there are many advantages – to our customers – in having satellite operations close to their manufacturing centres.

“In this instance, following the success of the rotor production cell we recently established in the municipality of Chongqing PRC to serve the Chinese market, we decided to invest and develop a similar set-up in the USA. In this case, we designed the plant to have sufficient production capacity and flexibility to meet a wide range of customer demands, while preserving the necessary agility to enable short changeover times and rapid batch switching. Additionally, we built in a system of Kanban inventory controls to allow for ‘just in time’ delivery.”

With a cluster of Holroyd’s prospective customers located in Eastern USA, the search began to find a convenient centre for manufacturing – a base that would be geographically convenient and situated to allow easy access to all the various services required to ensure the smooth running of a precision production cell.

“After considering various sites, we settled on premises in Spartanburg,” added Carr. “A key centre for automotive manufacturing, the area has a rich engineering pedigree, a highly skilled labour pool, well-respected machinery and cutting tools distributors – for CNC lathes and machining centres – as well as good access to metals stockholders. Added to that, the state of South Carolina was keen to attract inward investment.”

Holroyd Precision Rotors’ new facility in Spartanburg SC covers 35,000 sq m, employs approximately 30 staff locally and is supported by a team of specialist engineers from Holroyd’s HQ in Rochdale, UK.