Global Fastener News

Acument Resuming Aerospace Fastener Production in Rockford

John Wolz

Acument Global Technologies Inc. will return to manufacturing high-performance aerospace threaded fasteners by opening facilities in Rockford, IL. Production will create jobs and open a new chapter in the city’s fastener history.

Acument’s new Camcar Aerospace production center will be housed in two renovated facilities that will include a materials research and development operation, along with heading and secondary machines to produce specialty screws, bolts and other threaded fasteners made from aerospace grade materials.

The adjoining 37,732 sq ft and 11,236 sq ft buildings are owned by Acument and are located on 18th Avenue in Rockford.

“Our new manufacturing capabilities in Rockford will help address capacity shortages for specialty threaded fasteners generated by the boom in global aircraft production,” stated Martin Schnurr, vice president and general manager of Acument North America. “As worldwide manufacturing of new aircraft grows to almost $140 billion by 2015, there will be strong demand for the high-performance fasteners we will be producing over the next 10 years.”

Camcar was founded in 1943 to develop fastening solutions for the B-24 Liberator heavy bomber. “This focus on design and manufacturing engineering then extended into specialty fastening systems for NASA’s Lunar Rover Vehicles, and will be the primary driver of our new operation,” Schnurr said.

Low-volume production is already underway at Camcar Aerospace, and total outfitting of the two buildings will be completed over the next two years, Schnurr noted. It will reach peak production in 2010.
“A wide range of different types of fastening systems will be added during that time to meet customer needs, and will feature Acument’s patented Torx Plus drive system,” he noted. “We will begin with approximately 50 salaried and hourly employees and will hire machine operators and other personnel as production ramps up.”

Schnurr made his remarks during a tour of the Camcar Aerospace facilities attended by U.S. Rep. Don Manzullo and other local, state and federal officials.

Manzullo announced $750,000 in federal funds for Camcar and Northern Illinois University to conduct joint research and development programs to “foster development of titanium components that are vital to America’s future aerospace and defense leadership. Our long-range goal is to establish Rockford as the world capital for titanium manufacturing processes and technology.”

Camcar Aerospace has been officially recommended as qualified for AS9100 Quality Systems Aerospace Certification.

Information on skilled heading and secondary machine operators and salaried positions can be found on the website: acument.com/findajob.asp.

Headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Troy, MI, Acument provides mechanical fastening systems, engineered fastening systems, fastening installation technology, inventory management and application engineering. With about 8,500 employees in 17 countries, the company has customers in 150 countries. Web: acument.com �2008 FastenerNews.com