Titanium Expansion Project

October 6, 2008 will mark the official “ground breaking” ceremony for Weber’s major capital investment in new open die capability to support our rapidly growing titanium business. This project encompasses the addition of 30,000 square feet of manufacturing space, the installation of a new Wepuko-Pahnke 3300 ton fast acting open die hydraulic press supported by two Glama manipulators and six high temperature furnaces along with sundry additional support equipment.

In all, this project will provide a 33% increase in open die capacity and enable increased utilization, and thus increase available capacity, on our die forging presses, specifically our 33,000 ton Mesta Press. With the addition of this dedicated titanium open die processing capacity, Weber will have in house capability to convert titanium ingot, typically purchased as 30-36” diameter x 10000 – 16000 pounds, into forging billet, reducing lead time for raw material by 2-20 weeks depending on market conditions and mill loads. Weber will utilize this capability to support our own forging requirements and we expect to also use it in support of Otto Fuchs’ 787 titanium billet needs. It will further provide capacity to perform open die forging of individual titanium parts to be delivered as open die hand forgings or to be pre-formed and further processed as closed die forgings. Since 2003 Weber’s titanium business has increased ten fold and this added capacity is essential to enable Weber to support our titanium hand forging and die forging customers.

Of equal, but somewhat overlooked, importance is the freeing of available capacity to support Weber’s aluminum hand forging requirements. Until now, all hand forging requirements, aluminum and titanium, were produced on the same three open die presses (1200 ton, 1650 ton and 5000 ton). With the addition of the new 3300 ton press, all titanium will be concentrated in this facility, leaving all capacity on the other three presses available for aluminum production. This is important as Weber’s aluminum forging business in 2007 reached record sales levels and further growth was becoming capacity limited.

Following the ground breaking in October, 2008, Weber expects construction of the new building to be completed over the following 6-9 months. Initial delivery of press components is scheduled in May, 2009 and assembly of the press scheduled to take place from May until October of 2009. Commissioning of the press and commencement of production in the new facility is scheduled for November 2009, in time to address the anticipated ramp up of demand for titanium forgings on the Boeing 787