Change is in the works at Cianbro Fabrication & Coating Corporation (CFCC), both in personnel and at the Pittsfield, Maine, facility, where a significant overhaul will alter the entire shop floor.

CFCC has acquired and is constructing a new blast pit, which is crucial to the shop’s daily work. The new blast pit, purchased from Rapid Prep out of North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and manufactured by Abrasive Blast Systems, LLC out of Garland, Texas, will be a boon to our business. To accommodate the new blast pit construction, CFCC made small changes to the fabrication facility, such as building under the canopy to house the plate duplicator and running more electrical power into the facilities. Both of those items have made the blast pit process easier.

Additional work at the Pittsfield facility throughout 2021 include:

• Readying the foundation for the new blast pit.
• Finishing the roof of the canopy to better house the blast pit.
• Building a small annex to house the change room for blast pit team members.

Once the new blast pit is up and running, the team will convert the old one into additional fabrication space. This will add 2,500 square feet of fabrication space, which is equivalent to 25-30 percent of our total fabrication space.

However, the old blast pit isn’t the only staple of CFCC leaving the company.

After more than a decade with Cianbro, CFCC’s VP & GM Jack Klimp retired in 2021. Jack served the company well during his career, and he has left a lasting impression on Cianbro. We all wish Jack a happy retirement and welcome Mark McLean as his successor. In more than 20 years with Cianbro, McLean has spent time up and down the East Coast in operations and several years in CFCC, both in Baltimore and Pittsfield, before being assigned to Cianbro Constructors in 2008. He has been a significant contributor to the IDM team and, most recently, the Puritan Medical Products projects. CFCC will surely continue to flourish under Mark’s leadership.

CFCC’s team remains focused on safety. We had two recordables in five years. CFCC prides itself on safety, and this year has pushed the team to assess and reinforce the lessons learned, developing new protocols to prevent future incidents.

Over the past year, CFCC has seen many transitions, and will surely see more as we begin 2022. This year, the team will continue to take pride in the quality work we deliver to our customers, and we’ll continue to grow and innovate to meet the demands of the ever-changing world of fabrication and coating.

To read more about our team's accomplishments throughout 2021, take a look through the latest edition of The Chatter at https://issuu.com/cianbro/docs/chatter_winter_2022.

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