Tech boosts effi ciency — and employment On the larger end of the spectrum, new
technology also recently helped one of the county’s top industrial employers become more effi cient — and add jobs. Bingham & Taylor manufactures
primarily cast iron access devices for underground utilities across the country, such as valve boxes, meter pits and more. Last fall, the fi rm completed
$23 million in renovations on their manufacturing equipment to make it fully electric. T e business converted its furnaces from coal-burning to electric melting. T e switch decreased carbon
emissions by 98 percent, and it created 45 new jobs. T e new melt lab also results in a more consistent product and allows the staff to study the microstructure of the metal. “The lab is equipped with a
Spectrometer, Tensile machine, automatic grinder/polisher, CNC, microscope, macroscope, hardness tester, XRF gun and radiation detector,”
said Bingham & Taylor Senior Manager Matthew Sola. Translation: T e foundry is now fully
automated, leaving plenty of room for technological upgrades in the system that increase manufacturing capacity. Sola said they also have robotic welders and laser cutters. Elsewhere on the factory fl oor,
Bingham & Taylor has equipped each workstation with tablets full of custom apps, easing the production process for operators. Ultimately, the fl exibility that comes
with having the latest technology helps the company serve its customers better. “We work directly with the utilities
that install our products to understand the issues that they may be having and ensure that we develop or modify whatever is necessary so that our customers don’t have those issues anymore,” said Bingham & Taylor Director of Product Engineering and Design Mike Latham.
The big picture Culpeper has had technology
zones since 2006. T e zones come with incentives, such as tax rebates, an accelerated depreciation schedule and permit reimbursement, encouraging qualifying businesses to set up shop, including data centers. What makes Culpeper such a
popular hub for incoming data centers? According to Culpeper County Director of Economic Development Bryan Rothamel, it mostly stems from the county’s outstanding fiber connectivity. Local fiber links provide a great Network Access Point (NAP) for the whole of the Capital Region, which is the hub of internet traffic in North America. Last fall, faced with concerns about
impinging too much on farmland, the Culpeper County Board of Supervisors voted to condense its previously established tech zones into one area for future data center development. It’s a familiar balancing act for
the county, which for generations has successfully meshed economic development opportunities with heritage and quality of life.
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