furniture manufacturer Jasper Group recently acquired a new facility 30 miles from its plant, in Taylorsville, NC, to handle finishing. The former location of a Kincaid Furniture plant, it has 98,000 square feet and is big enough to handle future growth.

Inside the finishing facility is a new Dubois UV flatline system. Its 120,000-foot length was disassembled in Jasper and brought to North Carolina in sections. Time savings with the line will be significant, says library Director of Manufacturing Harold Kortman. Thirty panels, which used to take two days to finish, will now take only 30 minutes to an hour. There is no drying time involved, he says. Once a panel is off the line, “It’s ready to pack.”

The existing line, part conveyor-belt and part manual, is being retained for those items that can’t go down a flatline: tabletops and their frames, table legs, bookcases, dictionary stands, atlas stands and the like. They are hand-sprayed in a seven-step process, using Binks and DeVilbiss equipment.

In the recessionary climate, employees at the North Carolina plants are working from 40 to 32 hours a week, depending on orders. But the move has put the library sector in a position to thrive when the economy bounces back, Vice President Brian Lish says.

“We’ve got a sound infrastructure in place and are beginning to see activity in the library and education markets,” he says.

Editor's Note: This article has been excerpted from an earlier issue of Wood & Wood Products. To read the article in its entirety, click here.