Emuge hosts grand opening of expanded manufacturing facility

Emuge Corp. held a grand opening ceremony of its significantly expanded, custom-designed manufacturing facility in West Boylston, Massachusetts, on Oct. 15, 2019. Marking a 35-year presence in the U.S. along with increased growth in North America, the Emuge expansion includes more manufacturing and tool reconditioning space, the addition of a new PVD coating center, as well as an expanded Technology and Training Center. The expanded facility doubles the size of the original building to over 50,000 sq. ft. total.

^{Formal ribbon cutting (from left to right): Thomas Zeus, Emuge-Franken technical director; Thomas Pompe, Emuge-Franken board member; Connie Pompe, Emuge-Franken shareholder; Ulrike Glimpel-Knienieder, Emuge-Franken shareholder; Gerhard Knienieder, Emuge-Franken managing director; and Bob Hellinger, Emuge Corp. president.}

Over 150 attendees joined Emuge to celebrate the occasion. The event featured a formal ribbon cutting, a special unveiling of a statue of Emuge Founder Richard Glimpel, a full facility tour and live machining technology demonstrations. The impressive gathering demonstrated the importance of retaining and growing manufacturing technology in Massachusetts and the U.S.

"The expansion will allow us to better serve our customer base in the U.S. and Canada," said Bob Hellinger, president of Emuge Corp. "The growth we have experienced in our aerospace and power generation customer base has been significant in the past few years. The expanded facility will provide additional capacity to domestically manufacture special solid carbide tooling and other standard solutions within our milling tools portfolio."

Hellinger added, "Our facility expansion will also allow us to continue our commitment to creating jobs in Massachusetts. We project to add 25 to 30 new employees over the next five years to our current roster of 75. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all our employees who made this happen, and with special thanks to the Glimpel Family, owners of Emuge-Franken, for making this expansion a reality."

Emuge  executives were joined by officials including John Killam, president/CEO for the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP) who made remarks at the grand opening. "I would like to extend my congratulations to Emuge Corp. for its impressive facility expansion, as well as its progressive employee training program. The company is an excellent example of the importance of investing in its employees and why Massachusetts leads the nation in innovation."

Thomas Zeus, technical director, Emuge-Franken said: "Today marks a very significant step in Emuge's history. We are proud to celebrate this special milestone largely because of the commitment and hard work of all the Emuge employees in addition to the support of the Glimpel Family who made this possible. We are dedicated to hiring and training the right people and to expanding our building footprint and technological capabilities to meet today's and tomorrow's manufacturing challenges."

Gerhard Knienieder, managing director, Emuge-Franken said, "We are very proud to see this North American facility expansion become a reality, and I would like to thank all in the Emuge family that made this possible. It lays the foundation for future growth where new ideas can be shared and innovation can continue."

The expansion construction began in September 2018 and accelerated rapidly throughout 2019. Emuge currently has tool reconditioning capabilities in West Boylston for taps, endmills and drills, combined with the ability to manufacture tools such as spot drills, chamfer mills, carbide endmills, carbide specials, carbide step drills and make other round tool modifications.