Manufacturing Archives - Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business

Juan Murillo stands with two wheels recently spray-painted at American Wheel Specialist in Kennewick. The company, which opened 15 years ago, recently acquired a Richland powder-coating business.

Kennewick company finds success in crafting specialty wheels, rims

Juan Murillo said business was slow at American Wheel Specialist on a recent Wednesday. But within the span of five minutes, two men in an old Army truck pulled up to the front door of the plant at 1010 East Bruneau Ave. in Kennewick looking for help on a wheel for the truck. While Murillo […]

Food processing jobs lead local manufacturing boon

2 months ago by Guest Contributor

By Robin Wojtanik The Tri-Cities has seen the creation of thousands of new jobs in manufacturing, despite a loss of manufacturing jobs across the state. Jobs in food processing led the way for the region, with gains in non-durable manufacturing up 2.9 percent between March 2016 and March 2017, which translates to about 2,400 new […]

An automated system at Columbia Basin Ice in Kennewick puffs a jet of air into the bags to open them up before the machine drops the pre-measured ice into a bag. It’s then sealed and sent along a conveyor belt to be stacked onto a pallet.

Ice makers expect to manufacture nine million bags of ice this year

2 months ago by Kristina Lord

Kennewick’s Columbia Basin Ice anticipates $7M in sales for 2017 Tri-Citians reaching into big store coolers to grab a bag of ice on their way to a picnic, party or boat this summer most likely will be chilling their food and drinks with ice manufactured by a growing Kennewick company. Columbia Basin Ice’s 15,000-square-foot manufacturing […]

The Bogert Group in Pasco, a company with four separate manufacturing arms, reported success after participating in the business consulting and online education portions of the Make It In Washington, a program providing rural manufacturers with a range of consulting services and educational subsidies to train employees in key functions to make their businesses operate more efficiently. (Courtesy The Bogert Group)

Tri-City businesses succeeding at Making It In Washington program

2 months ago by Guest Contributor

By Michelle Dupler When your job is to make the best hydraulic jack you can, also understanding how to reach customers on Facebook might be outside your toolbox. But for manufacturing businesses in Washington state, help is available through a program that aims to help small and medium-sized manufacturers to change, grow and prosper with […]

Miramac Metals signed a two-year lease with the Port of Pasco last May for one of its warehouses in the Big Pasco Industrial Center, located off Ainsworth Avenue along the Columbia River. Demand for products is prompting the steel roofing manufacturer to plan for an expansion.

Miramac Metals eyes expansion of Pasco manufacturing plant

2 months ago by Guest Contributor

By Laura Kostad Miramac Metals Inc. opened a new manufacturing facility a year ago in Pasco and is already considering a future expansion. The Mead-based company supplies a diverse offering of customized steel products, including corrugated, ribbed and snap-lock panel profiles, to commercial and residential customers in the rapidly growing Tri-City region. Miramac signed a […]

Mayra Reyna, director of properties for the Port of Pasco, stands beneath a 15-ton capacity overhead crane inside a 43,200-square-foot warehouse at the Big Pasco Industrial Center. The building includes 6,000 square feet of office space. It’s been vacant since 2012 when Parsons Constructors and Fabricators Inc., an engineering firm that did work at Hanford, left.

Big Pasco Industrial Center offers blank slate of possibilities

2 months ago by Kristina Lord

Occupancy rates have ranged from 57 percent to 87 percent in past five years When the Port of Pasco’s director of properties walks around the huge warehouses in the Big Pasco Industrial Center, she sees business possibilities. “I see a lot of potential. Every time I walk through, I try to think outside the box,” […]

Apollo teams with LIGO to upgrade technology that proves Einstein right

1 year ago by Jessica Hoefer

On Sept. 14, 2015, Scientists at Hanford’s Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) proved that Einstein was correct. The scientists detected gravitational waves—ripples in the fabric of space and time. “That was one of the geniuses of Einstein,” said Mike Landry, LIGO detection lead scientist. “He proposed that space could have these properties—that the medium of […]

Kennewick’s KAIZENSPEED helps gearheads achieve peak performance

1 year ago by Audra Distifeno

In a race to become a premium performance brand in Northwest, KAIZENSPEED of Kennewick manufactures top-of-the-line auto parts, all in the name of speed. Owner Reid Lunde plans to have the human and technological resources to influence the industry and meet the finish line by 2023. “There isn’t a world-class manufacturing hub in this area […]

TRIDEC seeks growth of food manufacturing trade show

1 year ago by Mary Coffman

The Tri-City Development Council, or TRIDEC, is getting ready to stage its second FABREO Expo and is making some changes to create a more trade-friendly event. In fact, this year FABREO, June 15-16 at TRAC in Pasco, will be a trade-only event. The inaugural event in 2015 featured a public wine- and food-tasting portion. “We […]

Titanium alloy could improve fuel economy and reduce emissions

1 year ago by Guest Contributor

By PNNL staff for TCAJOB An improved titanium alloy — stronger than any commercial titanium alloy currently on the market — gets its strength from the novel way atoms are arranged to form a special nanostructure. For the first time, researchers have been able to see this alignment and then manipulate it to make the […]