Photo (from left to right): Greg Lang, manufacturing engineer; Glenn Pfendt, Florence plant manager; Ajita Rajendra, chairman and CEO; and Paul Dana, vice president-global manufacturing.

The expansion is the result of the overall growth of the business. Protective Coatings supplies glass frit, the material used to make water heater glass linings, to all A. O. Smith plants worldwide.

The plans call for a 20,000 square foot addition which will increase the size of the Florence plant by 40 percent. The project is scheduled to be complete in nine to 10 months.

The addition will house a new, large ball mill, along with material handling, screening, and packaging equipment, according to Glenn Pfendt, Protective Coatings plant manager. The new equipment will help PCD keep up with the growing demand for coatings.

"If you look at the data," Glenn explained, "our output has been increasing 15.3 percent per year since 2000, or a 638 percent overall increase." And that spike in demand is expected to continue for at least the next three to five years.

The burgeoning demand is the result of overall growth of the North American business, significant growth in China, the expansion into India, and three major acquisitions since 2001.

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