When contractors went looking for equipment to make Facebook’s new venture a reality they came across a family owned business in Vienna, Ohio called Kundel Industries. Kundel has provided many big names in the industry along with the likes of Jay Leno, West Coast Customs, Extreme Makeover Home Edition television shows and more and is a provider of Production Safety Systems including overhead bridge cranes and trench boxes used in the construction industry to hold back dirt from caving in on the workers in the trenches. Kundel was chosen as the provider for the highly secretive Area 404 for Facebook states project manager Elton Cervera of Kundel Industries. The crane will be used in the 22,000 square foot workshop used for the prototyping of many things including internet-beaming drones. It was also aid in the speed to delivery of such projects while keeping Facebook employees safe during the process.
Kundel Cranes | Facebook Area 404 Workshop
The workshop will be equipped with a high precision waterjet machine, drill presses, band saws, 5 axis milling machine and the product that makes all this work possible… the Kundel overhead bridge crane system. Designed to move heavy loads within the workshop it will work in conjunction with many of these machines helping Facebook navigate the tight constraints of the work area and building nodes it uses for its wireless internet project, Terragraph. Spencer Burns, a Facebook engineer who lead the workshop tour, stated that the new workshop will help turn project around in days versus weeks using outside sources or labs in the area. Facebook also has workshops in Seattle for its Aquila drone project. The Area 404 facility took only nine month construction process and was completed in July.
Kundel Cranes are used in many applications and come in a wide variety of sizes, but they have one thing in common and that is they are all built by the Kundel family which includes all employees of Kundel Industries striving to bring a better product into the crane industry. Gone are the days of using your grandpa’s power tool because many industries are moving into a disposable market, but Kundel is fighting against that movement to bring quality back to the United States with quality products made by quality people.