Solar Atmospheres has settled on Fontana, Calif., as the site of its brand-new 20,000-square-foot building. The entire project will cost $9 million. Solar Manufacturing of Souderton, Pa., is currently building two new vacuum furnaces for this project – a 24-foot car-bottom furnace and a 6-foot horizontal general purpose/vacuum/carburizing furnace. A 3,000-kVa power supply and switch gear, 2,000-gpm water-cooling system and all the piping for Solar’s nitrogen, argon, helium and hydrogen process gases will also be installed.

The site will also include a 1,500-square-foot, two-story office building similar to Solar’s existing Souderton and Hermitage, Pa., operations. Derek Dennis, president of Solar Atmospheres of California, said the facility will be operational by late summer 2010. The site is located on a 2.5-acre plot 40 miles east of Los Angeles in what is referred to as the Inland Empire.