Page 15 - MetalForming December 2010

Jersey Stamper
Rides West Coast Wave into Sheetmetal
Durex Inc., one of the most vertically integrated contract manufacturing operations you’ll find, invests in new fabrication technology to boost employee morale and impress prospective customers. Did the dice roll pay off? Read on to find out.
Fifteen years ago, the Union, NJ, high- volume metal stamping facility of Durex Inc. embarked on a new mis- sion, as it welcomed the transfer of sheetmetal-fabrication equipment and knowledge from its west-coast sister plant, Durex West. When company owner Bob Denholtz sold Durex West (San Jose, CA) in 1996, several of the plant’s laser-cutting machines, press brakes and CNC turret punch presses headed east to Jersey. And so did sever- al of its key employees, loaded with
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
fabrication expertise.
That’s when the company, which
began as a high-volume metal stamper in 1946 by Denholtz’s father, began its journey to becoming a fully integrated contract manufacturer. It’s now able to offer customers cradle-to-grave sup- port for everything from prototype design and development to low- to medium-run production, all the way to high-volume stamping.
“The evolution of our New Jersey plant into fabrication has played a key
role in our long-term success,” says Denholtz, who notes that about 45 per- cent of the company’s projects start in sheet (with another 45 percent in stamping and the remainder in machin- ing). The company works out of a 120,000-sq.-ft. plant and maintains a complete engineering department; a
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METALFORMING / DECEMBER 2010 13
Fabrication
Durex recently added these two new pieces of sheetmetal-fabri- cating equipment to its shop, an a CNC turret punch press (back- ground) with auto load/unload, and a combination CNC turret punch press and laser-cutting machine (foreground). “I bought the new stand-alone turret press for two main reasons,” says owner Bob Denholtz, “to boost employee morale, by showing that I would continue to invest in the company even during challenging economic times; and, to impress potential cus- tomers as they toured our com- pany and considered contracting our services.”