Hardide Coatings opens production facility in Martinsville

Hardide Coatings Inc., a British  provider of advanced surface coating technology, has opened its  26,000-square-foot production facility in Martinsville, which is expected to create up to 29 jobs during the next three years.

The new facility is the result of the company’s decision last year to invest up to $7 million in Martinsville to expand its production operations to North America.

The company said expansion was driven by increased demand from North American customers, with sales to the U.S, and Canada more than doubling during 2015.

The Martinsville facility will serve existing and new customers for the company’s range of hard wearing tungsten carbide coatings in the oil and gas and flow control markets.

The company also plans to expand in the aerospace and advanced engineering sectors and develop applications for its newly-patented coating for diamonds.

Hardide said its first two senior employees at the Martinsville facility, coatings supervisor Jamey Ewing, and pre-treatment supervisor Barry Farmer, spent 12 weeks last summer at the company’s head office and main production site in Bicester, England, being trained on coating production processes and techniques.

They returned to Virginia in September to assist with the installation and commissioning of the process, production and quality control equipment.

Production for North American customers, now being carried out in the United Kingdom, will be gradually transferred to Virginia.

Hardide Coatings is part of Hardide plc, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange.