“At the Elizabethtown-Hardin County Industrial Foundation (EHCIF), we have the great honor of representing an economic powerhouse in the Bluegrass State. From manufacturing to defense to health care, Elizabethtown and Hardin County’s strong, diverse economy attracts incredible opportunities to our region. We invite you to explore Elizabethtown and Hardin County using the resources on this site and contact us if we can be of assistance.”
The company, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary locally, unveiled its first product Jan. 13, 1998, Chad Sarver, general manager of Elizabethtown operations, said.
The Elizabethtown location at 200 Altec Drive started with about 32 associates that helped build the very first aerial devices at the company.
“We have grown anywhere from 10 to 15 percent every year since,” Sarver said.
The plant is producing those devices in high rates and continuing to grow and is ready to expand the facility and hire 100 more associates in the next year or so, he said. An associate tests the lift mechanisims of a recently assembled bucket truck. Each truck goes through a series of tests, including driving on the road, before they are delivered to the customers. Photo by Neal Cardin
Sarver called it a “focus factory,” which means this factory in the company is focused on one segment of the market – telecommunications. Most of their clients for aerial devices are telephone and cable companies with a few small electric, light and sign distribution, but mainly telecommunications, he said.
These devices lift and move the bucket up to lines for telecommunications and can reach 28 to 42 feet, depending on how the vehicle is customized, he said.
Products are engineered to order, Sarver said, describing the company as a custom manufacturer of aerial devices that builds the final assembly product, bodies, devices and integration between chassis along with electrical work, piping and control devices.
Other products are produced at other Altec facilities and used at the Elizabethtown plant to customize trucks.
Most of the staff are engineers and the Elizabethtown location has it’s own research and development department, he said.
The company has 4-G certified welders and specialists in powder painting, developing control systems, wiring, hydraulics and anything else that goes into the final product, he said.
“We’re very focused on our values and our culture,” Sarver said of the privatively held company.
On the production line, metal sheets are formed and shaped by lasers into parts used to make aerial devices.
These parts are put through a painting process. The state-of-the-art powder painting process is unique to the Elizabethtown facility, Sarver said. An Altec Industries associate performs hydraulic hose plumbing on a lift arm. Each component of a lift truck is custom built in the Elizabethtown Plant. Photo by Neal Cardin
The parts are hung on an elevated track that moves the hanging parts from one process to another. The parts are washed and then go through a zirconium bath. They are baked, receive a coat of primer, baked again and then sent for the final coat of powder paint. This paint is applied in a chamber with sprays. The product is then baked a final time to get its shine.
The parts then are used to build the aerial devices to be customized and assembled on trucks.
The trucks are moved down the production line for items to be added at each step.
The difference between the lines is the amount of hours it takes to build a truck, Sarver said. Some trucks are low variation and high volume and some are high variation and low volume.
The bodies are welded on in the first step and then more customizations are made such as adding boxes, flashing lights, decals and whatever the customer wants, he said.
“It gets better every step of the process until you get to the end of the line and have a finished truck,” Sarver said.
Everything along the process is engineered to order, he said.
“We have highly skilled, versatile associates,” Sarver said.
The associates have a skill set to critically think and understand every truck is going to be different and associates have to know why they are doing something, not just how they are doing it, he said.
The final process is testing trucks. Employees perform a dielectric test for trucks used by linemen and stability testing on a hydraulic pad to make sure trucks don’t flip.
The trucks also are road tested to make sure everything is running smoothly, Sarver said.
