SCHUMER ANNOUNCES WATERVLIET ARSENAL AND HARTCHROM, INC. RENEW CRITICAL ARMY CONTRACT OF NEARLY $17M – MODEL PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP PROVIDES CHROME PLATING TO PROTECT MEDIUM & LARGE CALIBER CANNON

Army Contract With Hartchrom, Inc. Will Support Watervliet Arsenal’s Manufactured Workload And Gun Tubes

Schumer: Contract Ensures Our U.S. Service Members Continue to Receive the Best Cannon in the World

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer today announced that Hartchrom, Inc. at the Watervliet Arsenal was awarded a contract by the United States Army of $16,979,892.   The contract is a renewal of a highly successful public-private partnership that will provide for chrome plating, manganese phosphating, and dry film lubrication of the Watervliet Arsenal’s manufactured workload. Specifically, this will include materials to protect 120mm and 155mm cannon tubes.

“I am so glad that the Watervliet Arsenal, under the command of Col. Joseph Morrow has renewed this model public-private partnership so that our nation’s cannon, will continue to be the highest quality in the world. Hartchrom is recognized as the best in the world at chrome plating, and the technologies and patents that they have developed over the years, simply cannot be replicated or matched.  This contract ensures that our great workforce here at the Watervliet Arsenal will continue to produce the best and most technically advanced cannon barrels in the world for our brave service men and women as they defend our nation,” saidSenator Schumer. “I also want to commend the Arsenal Business and Technology Partnership and it’s Director Peter Gannon.  The Partnership brought Hartchrom to the Arsenal sixteen years ago.  Together with Electralloy, which the Partnership also first brought to the campus, these two public-private partnerships have become the lifeblood at the Arsenal, preserving the critical skill base and employment as overall U.S. military workload has decreased.”

Hartchrom plays a key role at the Watervliet Arsenal, where it is charged with precision chrome-plating and surfacing operations for cannon barrels used by the U.S. military. Chrome plating the cannon barrels protects the inside of the tubes and greatly increases their service life and usefulness. The company installed more than $4 million in new equipment in 2010 and has steadily increased its business with the Army and other private-sector clients ever since.

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