Pepperl+Fuchs unveils U.S. dist center

The new facility includes a solution engineering center, customer training area, warehouse space and distribution center. The property also showcases 1,000 Pepperl+Fuchs sensors, which—along with automation technology—can help control a complex automated storage and retrieval system for the transport of materials for shipment, according to media reports. The plant will serve as the production hub for the company’s purge and HMI product lines. The Solution Engineering Center (SEC) staff will design, build, and certify customized solutions on-site for process automation in hazardous locations, such as oil refineries, pharmaceutical plants, and other facilities. The new North American location was chosen for its concentration of oil and gas industry companies in the Galveston Bay region, and it is the sixth for Pepperl+Fuchs globally, joining those in England, Germany, China, Australia and Italy. The company’s regional HR Manager Laura MacLoughlin said, “We found a community that fits our culture and would be comfortable for our employees given that we are the third-largest city in population and in size in the U.S. We want to have a local economic impact in this area, which has this phenomenal growth mode.” The new center was originally slated to be completed in the summer of 2017, but damage resulting from Hurricane Harvey delayed the project.