Sartorius Mechatronics Corp. has announced the expansion of its North American production facility located in Arvada, Colorado. A broad range of Sartorius Mechatronics Div. products are currently manufactured at the existing site including balances, industrial scales, electrochemistry equipment, moisture analyzers, and related accessories.

Key executives from Sartorius AG and Sartorius Mechatronics Corp. broke ground for the expansion in a public ceremony. Dr. Bodo Krebs, senior vice president of operations, Mr. Karl-Heinz Bornemann, senior vice president marketing & sales, and Mr. Maurice (Skip) Knapp, division vice president of sales and marketing joined Doug Biette, vice president of technical operations, and Mr. Craig Benes, president of CMC Group Inc. to lead the activities in front of a crowd of employees, Arvada city representatives, the project architects and subcontractors, and local Arvada residents.

In breaking ground for the expanded facility, Biette said, "I am pleased that Sartorius has expanded our North American capabilities to provide better service and faster delivery on a broader range of products. Our many customers and dealers throughout the U.S., Canada, and South America, as well as our export partners in Asia and Europe, will experience the benefits which we leverage from the High Tech Colorado Infrastructure, a progressive supply base and experienced, talented employees."

The expansion will increase the existing facility by nearly 150% and provide state-of-the-art applications laboratories, upgraded professional spaces, increased warehousing, and assembly spaces for the larger and higher-capacity, industrial range of products. Future expansion within the initial facility has also been accommodated.

The Arvada production facility is ISO9001:2000, NVLAP, CSA, and FM accredited. The new facility, planned for Q1, 2009 occupancy, has been aesthetically designed in cooperation with the city of Arvada in order to enhance the local site conditions while meeting Sartorius' high positioned image.

The Sartorius Group is an internationally leading laboratory and process technology provider covering the segments of Sartorius Mechatronics and Sartorius-Stedim Biotech. For the Sartorius Mechatronics segment in particular, the company manufactures equipment and systems featuring weighing, measurement, and automation technology for laboratory and industrial applications. Its Sartorius-Stedim Biotech segment covers major areas of focus on fermentation, filtration, purification, fluid management, and laboratory applications. Key Sartorius customers are from the pharmaceutical, chemical, and food and beverage industries and from numerous research and educational institutes of the public sector. Sartorius has its own production facilities in Europe, Asia, and America, as well as sales subsidiaries and local commercial agencies in more than 110 countries.