CEO ROUNDTABLE:TeNac — A specialized manufacturer
TeNac Inc. is located at 772 Mountain View Industrial Drive in the Morrison Industrial Park. TeNac, which stands for Tennessee Associates Corporation, is a support manufacturer for tire manufacturers.
TeNac manufactures, repairs, and modifies tire molds. TeNac is a privately owned corporation with other plant sites at Athens, Ohio and Akron, Ohio. Jim Thornton, son of the founder, built and opened the Warren County plant at the invitation of Bridgestone in December 1990. The corporation employs approximately 70 employees, of which 21 are in Morrison. Jack Thornton founded the company in 1969, and is still active at age 81.
While Bridgestone/Firestone is the focus of the local plant, other customers include Pirelli (Georgia), Cooper (Georgia and Missouri), and Goodyear (Tennessee). This is a very specialized manufacturing niche. Jim Thornton estimates that less than 12 competitors exist in the U.S. that service tire molds.
TeNac is increasing the capability internally of making new tire molds via new CNC machine tool purchases. Mold damage can be caused by press malfunctioning, foreign objects inadvertently getting into the molds, or just wear and tear. Most molds will require repair every two or three years. With the advent of steel-belted tires, the original two piece, “clamshell” type molds were replaced with segmental molds with as many as 10 segments forming a circle. The tire molds are fabricated from steel and will cost in the area of $60,000 new. Mold repair is a significant part of TeNac’s business. Modifying molds becomes necessary or desired for any tire design or tread change that affects outside dimensions. TeNac accommodates all such changes.
TeNac has made molds for car and truck tires, golf cart tires, lawn mower tires, earth mover tires up to 13-inch diameter, and even ash tray tires. TeNac also fully services tire molds associated with truck tire retreads. Jim Thornton stated that TeNac employees are very skilled at tire mold repair and all the machining thereof.
“They are especially good at making one offs.” Specific company strengths include CNC machining, large diameter turnings, large capacity mill and drill facilities, welding of steel or aluminum, full inspection station for in and out bound parts, sand blasting, highly skilled hand finishing staff, and fast customer response. Working to as close as 0.001-inch tolerance is common. Average lead time for tire mold repair is 10 days. Average lead time for subcontract machining is less than 10 days. TeNac is interested in expanding their business to include machining subcontracts for regional customers.
For subcontract customers, TeNac offers the following equipment capability:
• (7) Vertical boring mills – can turn up to 80-inch diameter
• (3) Horizontal boring mills – up to a 5-inch spindle diameter
• 4-foot and 6-foot drilling machines
• (2) EDM Machines
• (2) CNC vertical machining centers, with a third due in less than 30 days
• CNC letter engraver machine – for tire molds
• 5 Axis CNC vertical machining center for four-foot cube machining
• Company owned truck for pick-up or delivery of parts
• Portable coordinate measurement machine
TeNac currently has a 21,000 square feet plant with ample room for expansion. They use Mastercam 3-D for CAD/CAM software. While physical expansion is not on the current drawing boards, additional employees are expected as business rebounds in 2004.
The corporation employs two salesmen operating out of the Akron plant. There is a tire mold trade show every two years in Akron that TeNac has participated in the past. Some export business has been enjoyed in Canada, Mexico, and South America.
We have Bridgestone/Firestone to thank for TeNac being in Warren County. TeNac is a very specialized, high skills company. We are pleased to have TeNac as a responsible corporate citizen of Warren County.