Moving Metal

In an example of Reliance ingenuity in the late 1960s, an additional torch was mounted three feet ahead of another, enabling the operator to turn out oversized aluminum parts for giant cable reels in half the time otherwise required.

would be an expensive venture, costing nearly $3 million to build and start up a new facility, but Gimbel decided that it was worth it. Some of the Board members were not so sure. Bob Henigson recalled, “It was a very expensive proposi- tion. We struggled with that for a long time because it was putting the company at very serious risk. If we didn’t make it with that, we’d be in serious trouble.” Gimbel overcame the Board’s reluctance and in February 1968, he began planning

construction of a new 52,000-square-foot coil-coating plant at a 16-acre site in Cucamonga, about thirty miles east of Los Angeles. Ground was broken in July and the new facility opened in March 1969. Reliance named it “SupraCote” and appointed Francis D. “Frank” O’Neill Manager. This was the first coil-coating line west of the Mississippi River and one of the world’s most extensive coil-coating operations, capable of

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