Akron Auto Parts Manufacturer to Open...Automated Welding Jobs Coming

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A company that uses robotics to laser weld auto parts is moving into the Stow industrial park that once was the site of a Goodyear mold plant.

Noble International Ltd. is expected to employ about 45 people and invest $200,000 in the new building, which it will lease from Albrecht Inc. The company also will spend about $2.5 million on equipment for the plant, which is expected to open in January.

The plant will laser mold metal ``blanks'' for use in auto bodies and will chiefly supply Chrysler's Twinsburg Stamping Plant. Noble is North America's largest supplier of laser-welded blanks, with projected revenue of $350 million in 2005. (A blank is a piece of material that will be cut or patterned into something by a further operation.)

``Laser welding is a new, cost-efficient and growing technology, and Noble specializes in it, which could mean good things for Northeast Ohio if Noble continues to expand and increase production in the future,'' said Jack Juron, vice president of Albrecht.