Global Fastener News

Obama To Visit Cardinal Fasteners Friday Enroute to Inauguration

Jason Sandefur

President-elect Barack Obama plans to visit Ohio-based Cardinal Fasteners on Friday during a train trip from Chicago to his inauguration in Washington DC.

“President-elect Obama will tour the Cardinal Fastener & Specialty Company, a growing company with innovative production practices that manufactures parts used to construct wind turbines,” according to a statement from Obama’s office. “President-elect Obama will discuss how companies like Cardinal Fastener and workers like those in Bedford Heights would benefit from an American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan, which would aim to create nearly half a million American jobs by investing in clean energy like wind power.”

Obama’s plan aims to save or create three to four million jobs.

“The visit, the first campaign-like event since the election, comes in the state that has been the bellwether for presidential politics for decades,” according to the Boston Globe.

Cardinal created a wind power division in 2008 to address “explosive” sales growth of fasteners for the wind turbine industry. “Our company is receiving orders for products to be manufactured with very fast lead times – often as short as days,” president John Grabner explained at the time. “Once we prove our product quality and our company service, we are getting the opportunity to become the regular supply chain vendor.”

The new division has been staffed with three people dedicated to wind turbine customers, with another seven people spending much of their time on this segment of the supply chain.

Grabner serves as the industrial division chair of the Industrial Fasteners Institute. He also served as associate chair of the National Fastener Distributors Association from 1995-96.

Founded in 1983, Cardinal Fastener is one of the largest manufacturers of wind turbine fasteners in North America, having supplied over 150,000 pieces. Cardinal is located at 5185 Richmond Rd., Bedford Heights, OH 44146. Tel: 216 831-3800 Fax 216 831-3651 E-mail: sales@cardinalfastener.com Web: cardinalfastener.com �2009 FastenerNews.com