Alfe Heat Treating recently completed a $20 million equipment investment to retool its Defiance, Ohio, plant to support new, high-efficiency automotive engines. The fully automated, lights-out plant can process one engine every 49 seconds. This efficient, high-speed approach allows Alfe to meet 100% of the manufacturers’ needs for the specified product lines. Alfe Defiance employs the unique “condo” building approach on this site, which means housing multiple suppliers in a single location and using automation to transport parts from one supplier to the other. The shared location provides heat treating, shot blasting, X-ray, machining, leak testing and additional secondary services.