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Waunakee, Wisconsin, 2007-04-10 Since the 40,000 square foot expansion in Waunakee, WI completed in October 2006, NORD Gear has made a number of changes to increase our overall capacity and to better service customers.

Since the 40,000 square foot expansion in Waunakee, WI completed in October 2006, NORD Gear has made a number of changes to increase our overall capacity and to better service customers. The biggest areas of improvements involve the new large gearbox assembly and the new paint booth.

The large gearbox assembly area was recently completed and allows us to service and assemble the complete line of NORD units, including the largest unit SK12382. This will allow us to significantly reduce lead times on large gearboxes.

This assembly area consists of three traditional work cells with a fourth cell that consists of the large swivel press required to assemble the largest bevel and clincher units. Each of these cells has been designed around the concept of working in teams to build units. This concept was developed by input from employees, supervisors and our parent company. The use of teams allows us to maximize speed, efficiency and flexibility, which is important because some large units can take a full day to assemble. Inventory is staged strategically close to each cell and high capacity bridge cranes and conveyors complete the large gearbox assembly area.

Once assembled, units will be conveyed to a new paint booth and drying tunnel. The new paint booth utilizes the same superior painting processes that NORD currently uses. We start with a primer undercoat followed by a durable stainless steel solvent based coating that, once cured, achieves a 2H hardness, exhibits excellent impact resistance, and is USDA/H1 compliant. A new overhead conveyor that feeds the paint booth is designed to handle units weighing up to 6,000 lbs. The paint booth itself consists of a painting stage, a heated drying tunnel, and cooling tunnel. The new paint booth will increase our painting capacity by 200 units per day. By mid 2007, we expect all areas to be fully operational and providing significant benefits to our customers.