HEATEC’S REACH
Primary users of company products: * Hot mix asphalt plants * Barge and ship builders * Chemical and petro-chemical producers * Asphalt terminals * Power plants * Emulsion plants * Food processors * Wood product producers * Roofing plants * Oil and gas producers Source: Heatec
When Chattanooga-based manufacturer Heatec needed to put on training for its customers in the past, it would often resort to renting portable buildings.
But, starting late this spring, the company will open a new state-of-the-art, $1.35 million training center next to its production plant in South Chattanooga that will teach people how to operate its sophisticated equipment.
The nearly 6,900-square-foot training center is the latest physical addition to help grow the family of companies which together make up Astec Industries Inc., the Chattanooga-based business that last year hit a record high of about $1 billion in overall sales.
Heatec, with 240 employees, makes heaters and storage mixing tanks for asphalt cement. It also produces heaters and heat transfer equipment for process heating, the petro-chemical and other businesses.
Rick Dorris, Astec’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said Heatec is growing and needs the training center.
“Business is good,” Dorris said. “We’re busy. The backlog is good.”
Supplying equipment used in asphalt plants is about half of Heatec’s business, he said.
“But they also supply that used in a lot of other industries,” Dorris said. He cited natural gas and oil processing operations.
Heatec is adding a new 6,800 square-foot training center to their existing headquarters at 5200 Wilson Road.Frank Eley, Heatec’s director of advertising, said the training center will hold seminars for customers, the company’s service technicians and for independent schools planned for the future. Such schools will include Heatec industrial products as well as those used in construction, he said.
The center will hold two training rooms each having up to 48 students, Eley said. Training devices will be set up on tables connected to electrical power provided in floor pockets which also will offer Internet connections, he said.
Loading doors on an outside wall of the two main rooms will enable the placement of training equipment on stage. Video projection systems will be offered in the rooms along with an advanced audio system, Eley said.
A third room, for conference and breakout sessions, will house up to 24 students.
In addition, the training center will feature an open area where the company’s models can be displayed. Its main use is envisioned for small groups of visitors which tour the facility, Eley said.
The center also will offer a kitchen for customer and employee use, as well as storage and new restrooms.
Dorris said the Heatec expansion won’t produce new jobs, with training done by existing engineering and product support personnel.
Heatec is part of the group of businesses under the umbrella of Astec Industries, which was founded by J. Don Brock, the company’s former chief executive who died in March.
Heatec is adding a new 6,800 square-foot training center to their existing headquarters at 5200 Wilson Road.Brock started Astec in 1972 on a $120,000 bet with a friend over who could engineer a faster way to dry carpet. He won the bet, inventing what was then the fastest carpet-drying machine in existence.
Brock went on to secure 100 patents and created a business that now employs 4,000 people globally.
Now headed by Brock’s son Ben, Astec is a top manufacturer of equipment for asphalt road building, aggregate processing, oil, gas and water well drilling and wood processing.
The recent drop in oil prices is seen as potentially affecting some of Heatec’s customers, Dorris said.
“Although low oil prices could negatively affect some of Heatec’s customers, the asphalt contractor customers are helped by low oil prices which reduce the cost of liquid asphalt used to make hot mix asphalt for road construction,” he said.
Astec breaks up its businesses into three sectors: energy, infrastructure and aggregate and mining, with Heatec in the energy segment along with GEFCO, CEI Enterprises and Peterson Pacific.
In its infrastructure group are Astec Inc., Roadtec — both also based in Chattanooga — Dillman, Roadtec, Carlson, Astec Australia and Astec Mobile Machinery. Within aggregate and mining are Telsmith, Osborn, Breaker Technology, Astec Do Brasil, KPI-JCI, Technology Telestack and Astec Mobile Screens.
Contact Mike Pare at mpare@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6318.