MOUNT VERNON — In February, Rolls-Royce announced the closing of its plant in Liverpool, England, to concentrate its efforts to manufacture and test its energy products in the Mount Vernon plant. In the interim, Rolls has begun producing gas turbines and compressors locally, and is in the process of building new facilities specifically for those products.
“We’re building two test bay facilities,” said Gary Hyman, director of communication for Rolls-Royce. “One is a large, four-bay facility and the other is a smaller — although still rather large — three-bay test facility. On the four-bay facility, the steel frame erection is completed and you’ll see the roofing is currently being installed. We will be installing the cranes inside there soon.
“The three-bay facility is still a sizable facility, but smaller than the four-bay, and is currently having the steel frame erection in progress. It’s planned that it will also be enclosed by the end of the year.”
Hyman said the entire project remains on schedule, with a scheduled completion date by the end of the second quarter of 2009. The project will give Rolls-Royce a total of seven test beds for the turbine and compressor products.
“We have implemented two new flow lines, one for our RB-211 line, which is primarily directed to the oil and gas market, and our Trent line, which is primarily directed to the power generating market,” Hyman explained. “However, both products are used in both industries as well. Both of those flow lines are up and functioning now.”
The setup with the new test beds and the flow lines is such that the products can be wheeled out of the flow line buildings directly to the appropriate test bed. Each of the facilities has giant doors for accepting each machine for testing.
“Those flow lines were established in existing buildings,” Hyman said. “We did gut out the buildings and did quite a lot of work inside. But the structures themselves were part of the buildings that were here, as opposed to the new test facilities that are totally new stand-alone structures.”
According to Hyman, since April the company has added over 100 manufacturing floor workers and plans to add another 30 to 40 workers by the end of the year.
The company’s investment in the facilities is being supplemented by a $1 million grant from the Ohio Department of Development.
