MANNHEIM, Germany – MetoKote Corp. has unveiled its latest regional coating center in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, during a ceremony for customers, industry leaders, government officials and members of the media.

The EUR 6.5 million equipped facility, located in the Friesenheimer Insel area of Mannheim, Germany, will begin production on July 12, 2010. The facility will supply electro-deposition coating (e-coat) on tractor components for Germany’s leading manufacturer of agricultural equipment, John Deere.

“The opening of this facility supports our company’s long-term strategic objective of growing in global markets where our strategic customers compete,” said DeWayne Pinkstaff, MetoKote President and CEO. “MetoKote is extremely pleased to be able to open our first regional coating center in Germany in support of John Deere.”

Strategically located approximately nine kilometers from John Deere’s European headquarters and tractor assembly facility, MetoKote’s 11,500-square-meter site features an advanced e-coat operation that is capable of coating multiple substrates including steel, and aluminum and iron castings. The line’s all-spray, zinc-phosphate pretreatment, and 61.6-cubic-meter e-coat tanks are able to process components up to 0.91M x 1.83M x 3.5M in size and transport them through the line by way of its “power-and-free,” non-synchronized, overhead conveyer system. Uniquely, the cathodic e-coating system has two-color capability. Maximum coating capacity for the line is 2.2 million square meters per year. At full capacity, the facility can employ up to 50 team members.

MetoKote’s Mannheim coating operation meets all required environmental compliance regulations with its own integrated wastewater treatment center that can process six cubic meters (1,585 gallons) of water per shift. An inherently eco-friendly process, e-coating reclaims 98 percent of its material, returning it back to the operation. The facility also boasts a solar-panel roof, which will return 0.18 megawatts of electricity back to the Mannheim grid on an annual basis.

Integrated into the facility’s coating operations is MetoKote’s value-added SecureKote℠ technologies including its internally developed part-inventory-tracking software (MITS2) and remote-process-control monitoring system, which is capable of tracking hundreds of coating-process attributes by stage, specified interval, and specification limits, with automated electronic reporting and alert functions.

The facility begins initial operations in support of John Deere. However, MetoKote will expand its coating services by supplying e-coat to other customers in the region. MetoKote has access to an additional 12,500 square meters (three acres) of land for future expansion.