YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
YOUR BUSINESS AUTHORITY
Springfield, MO
Strafford-based manufacturing company Amprod LLC, which has divisions including Watson Metal Masters, American Products, DustShield and EnSight Solutions, is under the umbrella of Evansville, Indiana-based Koch Enterprises Inc. following a 2022 acquisition. Its American Products division makes the fort shelter, which helps to shore up the nation’s infrastructure system by protecting vital equipment from the elements. The product has a more than 20-year lifespan, which officials note as environmentally friendly. Company officials say it “enhances life and society” and helps support around 170 jobs in the community.
SBJ: How and where is the fort shelter product used by clients?
Matt Calton (general manager): Our structures ... can be used for a lot of different industries. Our primary industry is in telecommunications. Our customers are going to be internet service providers, telecom companies or cable TV companies. Last year, we sold one to SpaceX, and we’re actually getting ready to sell another one to SpaceX. We’ve had customers like YouTube as they were growing several years ago. We’ve done some oil and gas projects. They are used everywhere. We’ve got shelters sitting down in Antarctica. Right now, we are working on a project for self-driving cars. They’re going to have to have some way to communicate. Anytime you have communication, you have to have communication equipment. It’s very necessary for infrastructure and for our growth as a society. As technology advances ... it’s vital to be able to protect this equipment.
SBJ: How are fort shelters secured? How are they powered?
Calton: There’s always weather protection. You have to protect against the elements. You’ve got to protect that network. Not to say it can’t be destroyed – obviously anything can be – but our product has survived major hurricanes. They’re constructed out of galvanized steel. It’s a steel-constructed building. We’re doing the grounding as well. Most of the time it’s line power, grid power. But they can be backed up with generators so there’s generator backup. Like in a hurricane situation, if you lose power to the grid, you should still have communications because it’s going to be backed up with a generator. The bulk of what we do, 85%, is going to have a grid power source.
SBJ: What goes into the manufacturing of these products?
Calton: We’re not only providing the structure, we’re also providing integration. We’re also taking care of the climate control, because a lot of the equipment that is put inside these enclosures generates heat. We’ve got a radiant rubberized roof coating on the top of the structure and we also size the air conditioners to take care of not only the solar heat load but also the internet equipment heat load. We try to keep it within certain sizes, but they can be customizable.
Taking shape on 3.5 acres just east of State Highway H/Glenstone Avenue in the area of Valley Water Mill Park are the Fulbright Heights Apartments – three 23,000-square-foot buildings with 24 units each for a total of 72 one- and two-bedroom apartments.
