THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, January 24, 1997 TAG: 9701220117
SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JENNIFER C. O'DONNELL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 25 lines
Tecnico Corporation, a Chesapeake firm that specializes in Naval ship repair, composite materials research and fabrication dedicated its new South Norfolk plant last Friday.
The new plant consists of 17,000 square feet and the company plans on using the space for manufacturing composite material structures that are used in missiles and other defense products.
The composite material technology is graphite based and was developed by NASA Langley. Tecnico has an exclusive license with NASA to manufacture the defense-related parts.
Michael Torrech, vice-president of Tecnico Corporation, said the added plant space probably will lead to additional positions at the company.
``Right now we employ 325 people but we're hoping to get up to 400 with the help of the product line,'' said Torrech.
Torrech said the company, which has operations in Maryland, Florida, California and Washington, D.C., chose to expand at the South Norfolk location to help stimulate the region's business community.