Cleveland, Ohio – July 17, 2013 –AT&F, an ISO 9001:2008 compliant custom steel fabricator in Cleveland, Ohio, has opened an additional location in Charleston, S.C., specializing in serving the commercial marine industry. For more than 30 years, AT&F has served the naval defense industry through its headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio.
The new division, AT&F Marine, consolidates AT&F’s vast and diverse manufacturing experience and expertise for applications in the commercial marine industry. The marine division is focused on serving the emerging marine 
emissions control market and intends to provide components for exhaust gas scrubber technology and LNG conversion projects from the new location.
AT&F Marine is led by Chris van Raalten. With 18 years of management experience in vessel management, ship repair, conversions and commissioning, both from and contractor and vessel owners’ perspective, AT&F customers can be assured that their projects and associated risks are well understood and managed.
“Our goal was to bring together the tools and resources necessary to serve the specialized needs of the commercial marine industry in one location that’s convenient for our customers. From their perspective, this Charleston location is an ideal place to centralize our shipbuilding expertise; it also demonstrates our continuing commitment to customer success,” states Michael F. Ripich, AT&F President.
AT&F Marine offers ship owners, shipyards and OEM’s unique manufacturing capabilities, which are fully applicable to new construction, conversion and repair. AT&F has the required manufacturing engineering capabilities in-house and offers these services to its customers to provide the most economical manufacturing solution.
Van Raalten adds, “Our unique manufacturing and processing capabilities offer the maritime industry a variety of quality products and services for both one-off components and high-volume series production items. These include items such as bow thruster tunnels, propulsion components like kort nozzles, pod foundations, machinery, and deck equipment foundations, sea chests, and pressure vessels.” Corrugated bulkheads, specialty structural beams, etc. are all well within the capabilities and expertise of AT&F.
AT&F’s experience in component and system fabrication using specialty alloys includes exhaust gas scrubber towers, heat exchangers, manifolds, cryogenic systems, special tanks, and chemical handling systems. AT&F’s massive tonnage equipment for custom shaping and fabricating medium to heavy, long parts and components is one facet of its comprehensive manufacturing facility. AT&F’s service center offers prime materials direct from the mill, and its burning center possesses large tables with full plate capabilities for precision laser, plasma, flame cutting and contour beveling.
The forming experts at AT&F specialize in cylinders, rings, cones, segments, angles and custom shapes in medium to heavy walls, long lengths, small and large diameters. A complete range of certified welding processes, all in accordance with the appropriate industry specifications, meets any customer requirement. In-house non-destructive testing, heat treating and shot-blasting are a few of the many other services available. AT&F is ISO 9001:2008 certified and was founded in 1940.
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