The 110,000-square-foot building substantially replaces the company’s operations in Newbury, Ohio, expanding production of Crystals’ Scintillation business unit and enhancing efficiencies of the division’s global operations, according to the company.
With increasing domestic and international demand for Crystals-division products, leaders of Paris-based parent company Compagnie de Saint-Gobain approved the Hiram project in 2007.
Jacques Aschenbroich, president and CEO of Saint-Gobain in North America, said the Hiram facility is designed to maximize production efficiency.
“It will help us develop our scintillation and detector business, and will serve as a model in our industry for many years to come,” he noted.
James Thomson, president of Saint-Gobain Crystals, said the investment represents a strong commitment by the company to Northeast Ohio.
“The knowledge, skill and experience of our local work force are significant assets that factored into the investment decision,” he pointed out. “Support from local, regional and state-level governments, including assistance with utility installations and tax and training incentives also made the decision to build in Hiram appealing for Saint-Gobain.”
More than 250 people are employed in Saint-Gobain’s Northeast Ohio Scintillation business unit, designing and fabricating detectors that are incorporated into devices used for medical diagnosis, gas and oil exploration, and lighting, aerospace and security applications.
Scintillation has a significant contract to supply the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with detectors for the next generation of scanning devices to be employed at border crossings, as well as at container and freight trans-border facilities.
Saint-Gobain has conducted research and development, and production and business operations at a facility in Newbury since acquiring Bicron Corp. in 1990. In 2000, Crystals, was established as an international division of the Saint-Gobain High Performance Materials business. The Crystals division manages 16 locations in nine countries in the United States, Europe and Asia with about 1,300 employees.
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