Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | S | Solutions - for People, Processes and Paper

EHV-Weidmann fills niche for transformer board: specialty paperboard manufacturer focuses on quality improvement.

Article Excerpt
As New England paper mills go, the BHV-Weidmann Industries mill in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, USA, has barely passed Adolescence. It was incorporated in 1969 as EHV Industries Inc., and shipped its first order for electrical insulating board, or transformer board, in 1970. Before then, the domestic suppliers of insulating board included mainly the Rogers Corp. in Rogers, Connecticut, and the Spaulding Fibre Co. in North Rochester; New Hampshire.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the United States saw significant increases in electrical power distribution facilities. To meet this demand, transformer manufacturers such as Westinghouse and Allis-Chalmers were asking suppliers of electrical insulating board to produce much larger shoots to avoid having to work with spliced sheets, which exhibited lower strength capabilities. Both Spaulding and Rogers declined to develop such a product.

Robert C. Fuehrer and Gordon Mills, two employees of Spaulding, saw an opportunity to form their own company in the mid-1960s to produce transformer board in larger sheets. They eventually selected a site in Vermont because, of its readily accessible water, energy, and transportation, and because of attractive state and local financial backing and tax considerations. In 1969, Fuehrer aim Mills became cofounders of EHV (lot extra high voltage) Industries Inc. Throughout this process, Mills developed a working relationship with Weidmann AG in Switzerland, Weidmann infused capital and manufacturing technology into EHV and became a one third owner in the early 1970s. To reflect this ownership, EHV Industries was renamed EHV Weidmann Industries Inc. Today, the company is wholly owned by Weidmann AG and is part of WICOR Americas Inc., a privately owned organization....