Simonds Million-and-a-Half Dollar Plant

The largest saw factory in the world, consisting of building units of the most modern type is to be built immediately by the Simonds Sarv and Steel Company in Fitchburg, Mass., r'i'here the industry was founded nearly a century ago'

Announcement of the purchase of a large tract of land, located in the easterly section of Fitchburg, along the line of the Fitchburg Division of the Boston & Maine Railroad, has just been made by the officials of the Simonds Saw and Steel Company. Simultaneously with this news comes the statement that an entirely ner.v plant for the manufacture of saws, machine knives, and files, will be built on the recently acquired location. Plans have been completed after an extensive survey by expert engineers for this plant, which it is asserted, rvill be rnost modern in building construction and also as to the ma-chinery anC other equipment.

This new Simonds factory, it is estimatecl, rvill cost about one-million-and-a-half dollars.With this announcement comes the added important fact that trvo large factories, located in Fitchburg, lvill be vacated as soon as the new manufacturing grollp is completed. The extensive plant of this company in Chicago, lvill aiso be made a. part of ttt. nerv co.tsolidated plant and 'ivill occupy a prominent part of the proposed manufacturing program.

In Fitchburg the present exten'sive manufacturing plant, entirely rebuili in 1904 and consisting principally oi buildings four stories in height, on a large acreage in- the heart of-the city, will be vacated when the new buildin-gs ar-e ready for bc.upattcy. 'I1-ris is expected to be about Jnne-1, 1931: This gioup of buildings rvill in all probability be occupied by another large industry.

The File Works of the Simonds Company rvhich occupids a separate factory in another location in Fitchburg will be generously provided for in the consolidation plan, rvhere its further rapid expansion is anticipatecl. The main layout of the new plant to house the units referred to above, calls for a building designed for greater manufacturing efficiency, rapid service a.td the retention of the high standard -of quatity for rvhich this company has been celebrated for nearly 100 years of continuous manufacturing activities.

Never before in the history of the sarv, machine knife, and file industry has thele l>een sttch a progressive step made by an indiviclual organization such as Simonds proposes to accomplish. Undoubteclly this nerv plant rvill be the most modern that industrial science and engineering can conceive. The vacating of the plants rvhich heretofore have been 'considered the foremost in this fielcl, and construction of an entirely nerv one, is a project tvhich is in step rvith the up-to-date policy rvhich Si'moncls has ahvays maintained. It will mean the retention of the organization's quality in proclucts with progressive methods and consumer servlce.

Simonds. through its various manufacturing plants, has been a self-contained organization and will continue rvith this same policy, as indicated by the recent announcement of an extension to its steel mills in Lockport, N. Y., where most of the special steel n'hich goes into the making of Simonds products is made.The l,ockport mill is being extencled and further equipped to meet the clemand for the future.

At this time no clrastic changes in other manufacttrring plants owned by the Simonds Saw and Steel Company in the United States and Canada are anticipated.