Petersen Inc. at Airport

September 2011
POCATELLO — Fresh paint fumes and the sight of workers putting the final touches on the Petersen Incorporated sign facing Interstate 86 were all part of Thursday evening’s grand opening preparation.
Machinists, welders and various fabrication workers could be seen working on numerous projects inside the more than 72,000-square-foot facility prior to the Thursday ribbon-cutting, located at 1463 Fortress Drive near the Pocatello Regional Airport.
Jeff Schutte, the Pocatello fabrication manager, said the facility has about 30 projects or work orders it is currently filling.
Groundbreaking on the Idaho facility took place in August of 2010 and the Utah-based company began moving into the facility in February. During the past few months the final elements of the fabrication facility have been installed.
“It feels great to have our new blast and paint booths and burn table finished,” Schutte said.
In the center of the fabrication shop sets a 85-ton main boom for an electric shovel dipper to be sent to a mine site. Schutte said they can build single parts or every component for clients.
“There isn’t any limitations there,” he said. “It’s just a matter of what this customer is wanting for this area and what they need next — anywhere from handles, to booms to crawler frames to revolving frames, car bodies and all the heavy weldments for the shovel.”
Vice President of Business Development Rob Despain said the company builds parts for a variety of industries, including mining, nuclear waste, aerospace, industrial and petrochemical. Petersen tackles everything from small precision machining and manufacturing to large machining and ships products all over the world.
“Everything you’re looking at comes to us in flat sheets of steel, straight angles and straight beams,” Despain said, as he looked around the facility. “We do something to it — cut wholes into it and form it in shapes. What a carpenter is to wood, we are to steel. Really, our only limitation is our customers’ imaginations.”
The Pocatello branch is an all-inclusive shop providing design, fabrication and installation of metal industrial and precision machining products.
Schutte said the large pieces of metal used in the boom’s construction were cut on the burn table, which can cut large sheets of metal.
Schutte said there are about 52 employees at the facility with a few positions available. He said they will reach 60 employees within the next four to six weeks.
As for workload, he said the facility could handle about 40 project requests at any given time.
For more information on Petersen Inc., visit www.peterseninc.com.

By Vanessa Grieve
vgrieve@journalnet.com