Business View Magazine | August 2019

77 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 fabrication facility in Newberg, with an additional 48,000 square feet of fabrication floor space located at the Port of Portland, with access to river barge and ocean cargo shipping, as well as cargo rail. In 2014, the company, under the ownership of Arnold Fuchs, established a sister company, in Bonner, Montana - Harris Manufacturing - adding another 36,000 square feet of fabrication space. Harris Manufacturing was established in order to help Harris Thermal Transfer Products expand its business reach to the Midwest and Eastern United States, as well as the Canadian Provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Together, the companies have customers across the globe in the following sectors: petrochemical, pulp and paper, water treatment, piping and ducting, modular plant construction, and nuclear. “Basically, we’re both ASME-code manufacturing facilities,” says General Manager, Eric Groenweghe. “Between the two companies, we have about 100 employees. “We also build formaldehyde reactors for several of the very large formaldehyde plants,” Groenweghe adds. “The biggest use of formaldehyde is in oriented strand board (a type of engineered wood similar to particle board, formed by adding adhesives and then compressing layers of wood strands in specific orientations.)” “Another niche market for us is water treatment equipment,” he continues. “We build very large evaporators. In fact, some of them can be over 500,000 pounds. They consist of a large shell- and-tube heat exchanger with a large vapor body on the bottom of it. And we also build french-fry heaters for cooking french fries on an industrial level for the potato industry. We also have gotten involved in some nuclear waste treatment, being close to the Hanford nuclear waste cleanup site. Over 50 vessels went to that site. We’ve also built a lot of the test reactors and simulation equipment for Oregon State University, one of the leaders in developing nuclear reactors.” Being diversified help the Harris companies navigate the uncertainties of the marketplace; when one industry is down, another may be up. “We do quite a bit of work in the pulp and paper industry, which can be hot and cold,” HARR I S THERMAL TRANSFER PRODUCTS/HARR I S MANUFACTUR ING