Voith Group invests nearly $25M in two York facilities

Voith Group is making a nearly $25 million investment in its Voith Hydro and Voith Turbo facilities in York to meet manufacturing needs. 

Voith Hydro is investing almost $20 million in its manufacturing facility to meet hydropower needs and Voith Turbo is investing $5 million to expand manufacturing to meet the needs of the rail industry. 

The Voith Hydro project includes the installation of a Pietro Carnaghi AP 120 TM Vertical Turning Lathe (VTL) and a PAMA Speedram 3000 Horizontal Boring and Milling Machine (HBM). 

The machine upgrades will result in increased production capacity, improved product quality, increased energy efficiency, greater tool life, reduced downtime, reduced waste, and enhanced worker safety, Voith Hydro said.  The project will be unveiled April 23. 

Voith Hydro said it is making these investments as part of its continued commitment to serving customers in North America and around the world.  

The retooling of Voith Hydro’s facility occurs during historic investments in Clean Energy resulting from the enactment of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Inflation Reduction Act.  

“Voith Hydro’s U.S. manufacturing roots date back more than 145 years, and we are excited about this next chapter for our company,” said Stanley Kocon, president and CEO of Voith Hydro North America. “We can and should make the products that power America right here in America, in places like York, Pennsylvania. The latest investments in our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility will be instrumental in building the next generation of hydropower turbines and hydro pumped storage machines needed to meet our nation’s ambitious climate and job-creation goals.”  

These investments qualify as Advanced Energy Property under section 48C of the Internal Revenue Code, making them eligible for a potential tax credit to offset a portion of the costs of these investments in U.S. renewable energy equipment manufacturing.  

In addition to the 48C program, Voith Hydro said as a U.S.-based manufacturer, hydropower and pumped storage hydropower projects utilizing Voith technology manufactured in the U.S. may also qualify for an additional 10% domestic content bonus, on top of other incentives and credits for building clean energy infrastructure.  

Voith Hydro plans to place the new VTL and HBM into service by September 2024.  

Voith Turbo North America’s $5 million expansion of its workshop in York that will increase manufacturing capabilities primarily for the rail industry will be unveiled May 7, Voith Turbo said. 

 “This expansion is going to allow us to proactively meet our customers’ growing needs now and into the future,” said Ralf Dreckmann, president, Voith Turbo North America. 

 Voith Turbo said it began construction on an additional 10,000 square feet of space to its existing 69,700-square-foot facility and conversion of 17,000 square feet of warehouse space to manufacturing operations and service work in August. 

 The company said it is seeing increasing manufacturing needs in many of their customer markets, but the main growth is related to the rail industry.  

Through this expansion, Voith Turbo’s rail operations at the York facility will transition from a mostly service-based disassembly and reassembly business to new business manufacturing which will allow the company to support higher volume rail products like gear boxes and couplers, Voith Turbo said.   

Voith Turbo said it will be adding several full-time positions including shop technicians; Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machinists; project managers; engineers; field service technicians; and support and quality control. More job openings are anticipated in the future.  

The expansion will also increase Voith Turbo’s capacity to meet Buy America compliance requirements. 

 “Through our rail business, which is largely for municipal transportation networks, we have many projects that require regional value content as well as Buy America compliance,” said Garrett Goll, director of Sales, Voith Turbo Rail Business North America. “This expansion will boost our compliance capabilities for those contracts and in turn, will bring even more value for our customers,”