Owens Corning Breaks Ground For Automotive Solutions Center

TOLEDO, Ohio, Jan. 8, 2002 – Owens Corning announced today that its Automotive Business will be based in Novi, Michigan, in order to be closer to its Detroit-based customers. A new 57,000-sq.-ft. (5,300 m2) Business Solutions Center will open in the second quarter. Located at Beck West Corporate Park, 46500 Humboldt Drive, the center will be easily accessible to the automakers and auto suppliers in metro Detroit.

“Owens Corning’s Automotive Solutions Center is designed to bring together our strength in program management and our strong technical capabilities to accelerate the growth of composites in the automotive market,” said Dr. Andrew Hopkins, acting general manager of OC Automotive.

Hopkins says the creation of the Center reinforces the main objectives of OC Automotive, which are to increase composites use on vehicles and improve shareholder value for OEMs. “We will focus on the unique capabilities of Owens Corning, and those of our strategic alliance partners,” added Hopkins. “Part of our plan for the Center is to have a significant area for prototyping and new technology demonstrations. For example, the Center will be the focal point for work on the next generation of the OC™ Preformable System, which combines a proprietary glass fiber with unique binder technology to enable efficient manufacturing of reinforcement preforms. We will also use the Center for work on new material systems like StaMax P long-fiber polypropylene, and next-generation carbon fiber composite technology.”

The new Automotive Solutions Center will house administrative staff, scientists and engineers and OC Automotive management.

The engineering/architectural firm for the new headquarters is Middough Engineering Co., based in Cleveland, Ohio. The developer for the project is Channel Partners, based in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.