Marshall Composites to Celebrate Grand Opening with U.S. Senator Ron Wyden

SALEM - Marshall Composites, LLC will celebrate the grand opening of its Salem facility and worldwide training center at 3:30 on July 6, 2010, and welcomes United States Senator Ron Wyden as a guest speaker for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

Marshall Composites, a recognized name in the composites industry, has opened a manufacturing plant to produce C-BAR, a composite alternative to traditional steel re-bar. C-BAR is a proprietary fiber-reinforced polymer with one and a half times the tensile strength of steel, with one-quarter the weight. C-BAR has been tested, approved and certified for use in all concrete applications, with several key advantages, primary being that it is completely resistant to rust and corrosion - the major cause of structural failure with traditional steel re-bar. This means that structures made with C-BAR will have a dramatically increased lifespan and will cost far less over time.

Located at the Salem Advanced Technology Center (SATC), the Marshall plant will serve as the worldwide training center for technicians learning to operate the C-BAR machinery as new plants are established. Much of the equipment for future plants will be manufactured in the Willamette Valley, using local fabricators. The Salem facility will employ up to 20 people. The SATC campus is also home to Oregon Ballistic Laboratories, LLC, Composite Materials Research and Development, LLC, and laboratories and production facilities for High Impact Technologies, LLC of Tigard, Oregon. The synergies achieved by these companies has enabled the establishment of the latest company, Marshall Composites, LLC.

The opening of the Marshall facility was a unique collaborative effort, combining private resources, lottery money from the Marion County Economic Development Advisory Board and assistance from the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department, through the Governor's Strategic Reserve Fund. Each of these partners came together with the common goal of creating family wage, traded sector jobs. These grants helped pay for the capital construction and engineering to get the facility production-ready.

The ribbon cutting ceremony and grand opening celebration will be held at the Salem Advanced Technology Center at 2873 22nd Ave, SE. in Salem. Refreshments will be served and tours of the campus will be offered. Event inquires can be directed to Kate Al Sheikhly at kalsheikhly@marshallcomposite.com.