Amada campus marks growth
Nov. 16—HIGH POINT — Growth is ticking back up at the Amada America campus in north High Point, which makes high-precision press brake machines for the auto and appliance markets.
A subsidiary of Amada Global in Japan called Amada Weld Tech Inc. recently opened a lab within the 62,000-square-foot technical center portion of the campus off Penny Road.
The new facility serves as the East Coast technical center for Amada Weld Tech, which is based in Monrovia, California, said Patrick Medlin, chief manufacturing officer for Amada America.
"They make some very small laser machines that are predominantly used for laser etching. They also have some that can do specialized welding for (electric vehicle) batteries," he said. "So they have now set up a section within the tech center in High Point where they have a lab where they do demonstrations for customers, and they have service and support out of that building."
The 37.6-acre campus now spans 256,000 square feet and has a total of about 100 employees, Medlin said.
The first building — a 197,000-square-foot manufacturing center — opened in early 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Since then, the plant has been adding capacity but has struggled to find workers at times. Before the pandemic, the company was planning an expansion of the facility, but that's on hold for now.
"Are there still plans to do that? Yes. In terms of a date, I can't really speak to that yet," Medlin said.
The technical center opened as the second building on the campus in October 2020 and includes a 24,000-square-foot showroom, parts and service personnel and the "Amada school," where customers learn how to operate press brake machines, Medlin said.
