Honda Announced a $50 Million Expansion to Increase Capacity

Honda Transmission Mfg. Of America Inc. Announced a $50 million expansion to increase capacity for casting aluminum transmission cases at its Russells Point diecasting facility. The 75, 000-square-foot expansion at the plant will house high pressure diecasting operations and include a new melting furnace to support the addition of a third transmission assembly line that began construction in December 2010. Honda Transmission currently receives approximately 100, 000 pounds of molten aluminum per day from two aluminum mills in Indiana. "The new melting furnace will implement technologies that will improve efficiencies and reduce our environmental impacts, " said Plant Manager Gary Hand. "These improved efficiencies will reduce waste and energy consumption. " Honda said the project will bring its total new capital investment in its Ohio operations to more than $400 million. "This latest investment in Ohio is another example of how we intend to meet the needs of our global customers by implementing advanced technologies in our production operations and in our products, " said Honda Transmission President Yuji Takahashi. The investment also includes construction of a new associate entrance, along with a new lobby entrance and activity center, at the south end of the facility. When completed, Honda Transmission's casting, machining, forging and assembly operations will encompass 1 million sq. Ft. Earlier this year, Honda Transmission completed a $25 million renovation of the plant's aluminum machining lines and steel gear production and made efforts to increase flexibility on the current assembly lines. The modifications resulted in adding domestic production of six-speed automatic transmissions for some Honda Odyssey models. Source: Metalcastingdesign. Com