Gate Valves have long been a key part, manufactured here at Stern Rubber. Our team has worked hard to perfect the process of bonding our rubber to a cast iron valves, so they will form a liquid tight seal in water mains across the country. Our production of these parts has been done at both our Staples, and Aitkin facilities. With our recent addition to our Aitkin plant, we took this opportunity to move our production of gate valves entirely over to this facility. This transition, required us to transfer several pieces of equipment, including machining equipment and a few of our large presses from the Staples plant, and over to Aitkin, freeing space and personnel for new production opportunities at the Staples campus. Along with our movement of machinery to Aitkin, we also added several new pieces of production equipment, including a rubber mill, overhead cranes, as well as a new press.
Along with these equipment additions, we also added a new customer to help round off the production coming out of Aitkin. This Infrastructure Manufacturer is located in the Upper Midwest, now has us producing several sizes of bonded gate valves for them as well. With our lengthy experience, and proven bonding process, they found Stern to be the best fit for their products.
They are one of the largest suppliers of infrastructure products in the world. From their website, they are “the world leader in the design, manufacture, and distribution of access solutions for water, sewer, drainage, telecommunications, and utility networks worldwide.” Their products include items such as manhole covers, drainage grates, curb inlets, and of course water gate valves, and fire hydrants.
Although our production capabilities here at Stern are very diverse, we are always excited to bring in new customers, that want us to work with something we are already experienced in. With our new expansion in Aitkin, and the addition of a new customer, we are excited to see how things continue to progress in 2018 with our company as a whole, as well as our new relationship.