CowlCo Alloys & Metal Inc., based in Watertown, N.Y., is seeking to build an aluminum sweat furnace in Watertown, N.Y. According to Sue Walsh, COO for Cowlco, if everything goes according to plan the company will be operational at the site by this coming March.
The company will be taking over a 75,000 square-foot facility that was previously operated as a Black Clawson foundry. The location where the facility is located in zoned for heavy manufacturing, although the company needs to have a special use permit issued before they can operate at the site.
The first step in the process is to go before the city’s Planning Board. That meeting is scheduled for Jan. 5. From there, whether or not the company receives a recommendation, the company is slated to go before Watertown’s City Council in early February.
Walsh says that plans call for the facility to start with one furnace operating three shifts a day, six days a week. The furnace will be capable of producing around 30,000 pounds of aluminum sow a day. Raw material for the facility will primarily be secondary aluminum collected from the automotive industry.
The end product will be sold on the open market through brokers.
Walsh adds that while CowlCo is a newly formed company, the management of the furnace is has hired a significant number of experienced people to run the facility.
The newly formed company was the creation of Cowles Contracting, a Watertown-based green energy contracting firm.
While the move to build a secondary aluminum sweat furnace is different from Cowles’ historical area of expertise, “Recycling is consistent with our goal of improving the environment,” said Walsh.