Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories building new manufacturing facility in Moscow
Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories is building a new manufacturing facility southwest of Moscow, the company announced Monday.
The Pullman-based company will fabricate printed circuit boards – which are used in its products to protect, monitor, control and automate electric power systems – at the 140,000-square-foot facility on U.S. Highway 95, according to a company release.
The new facility will allow the company to move circuit board manufacturing in-house. Currently, SEL engineers and specialists design the printed circuit boards used in the company’s products, but they are fabricated by several U.S. suppliers.
“As a former hardware engineer, I am really excited about adding this capability to our already amazing manufacturing capabilities,” Dave Whitehead, SEL’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.
“Circuit boards are one of the most engineered components we design. Bringing them in-house allows us more freedom to experiment and innovate. Instead of ordering them from across the country, we’ll be making them just 7 miles down the road.”
SEL plans to break ground on the manufacturing facility in spring . Construction is slated for completion by mid-2022, according to the company.
SEL is working with New Hampshire-based GreenSource Fabrication to design the facility.
“This will be the most modern, environmentally friendly and safe PCB manufacturing facility in the United States – maybe the world,” Edmund O. Schweitzer III, SEL’s president, founder and chief technology officer, said in a statement.
“This is great for our employee owners, our customers, our community and the environment. It also represents opportunity for us all.”
Schweitzer purchased the 150-acre site southwest of Moscow in September from Idaho-based Deesten Farms LLC to accommodate future growth.
SEL, founded in 1984, invents, designs and builds digital products and systems to protect power grids worldwide.
It serves customers in 166 countries.