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PHILLIPSBURG, N.J. – Bright orange glows from a large cylinder, and heat blasts everywhere from the product being manufactured: ductile iron pipe. Workers turn out about 70,000 tons of the metal tubes each year at McWane Ductile New Jersey, said Dale Schmelzle, the Phillipsburg plant's vice president and general manager. Shipments of pipe leave the Sitgreaves Street foundry bound for customers in the Northeast and beyond, eventually becoming deployed underground for water lines throughout the region. "We replace old cast iron pipes, even wooden ones," said Schmelzle, before a tour held Thursday for members of the Phillipsburg Area Chamber of Commerce, part of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber. "We are extremely optimistic for the next 10 years, with the infrastructure rebuild." Chamber members and others, including Phillipsburg Mayor Stephen Ellis, got a glimpse at the pipe-making process. The 20-minute tour was a fraction of the two hours it typically takes to produce a pipe, said Paul Carbo, McWane's human resource manager. In recent years, the company has given outsiders a chance to see the foundry as part of its effort to be a good corporate citizen, Carbo and Schmelzle said. It's also an effort to rehabilitate its image in the community. "There's always a misunderstanding when people hear the word foundry; they think it's dangerous and people get hurt," said Carbo. "We're very proud of our safety record, and we like to show guests how we make our pipes." It wasn't always that way at the foundry, which for years was known as Atlantic States Cast Iron Pipe Co. McWane has had a rocky history, from work-related deaths and injuries to environmental violations that culminated in an $8 million fine imposed in April 2009. Four former plant managers were sentenced to federal prison for what authorities said was wrongdoing at the plant, including the cover-up of evidence in the 2000 death of Alfred "Alfie" Coxe in a forklift accident. The convictions followed a nearly seven-month trial. Last year, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited McWane with a serious violation for, in part, failing to provide "machine guarding" to protect workers from hazards created by flying objects. The company recently paid a $5,280 penalty under a stipulated settlement, said Patricia Jones, director of OSHA's Avenel, N.J., office. Schmelzle, who became general manager in 2011, acknowledged the company's "bad history" to tour participants. "But certainly, I would put this plant ahead of any in terms of safety," he said. He also said the company has spent $20 million to $30 million in safety, production and environmental improvements. The plant, he said, recycles all its water. Years earlier, government regulators cited the company for illegal discharges into the Delaware River. Since Schmelzle's arrival, signs in both English and Spanish have been placed reminding workers about safety. He said it didn't make sense that Hispanic workers didn't have access to information in their native language. During the tour, visitors saw pipes emerge from a melting furnace, or cupola. Before that, foundry workers mixed scrap metal, coke, silicon and limestone into the furnace. Heated air and oxygen blasted into the cupola causes the material to melt rapidly into molten iron at a temperature of 2,800 degrees Fahrenheit The liquid metal is treated with magnesium to make it ductile iron — a stronger, more flexible pipe. It is poured into water-cooled molds and casts to produce pipes in diameters ranging from 3 inches to 20 inches. More than 700,000 pounds of molten iron is needed during the one production shift per day at McWane's local plant. The Phillipsburg foundry is a division of privately held McWane Inc. of Birmingham, Ala. McWane also owned Tyler Pipe Co. of Macungie before closing it in April 2006 after a fire five months earlier severely damaged at least half of the foundry. The closing put 180 employees out of work. Last December, McWane shuttered a Tyler Pipe distribution center in Lower Macungie Township, moving those operations to Wayne, N.J., to accommodate the company's customers in the New York City area. Though Tyler Pipe has left Lehigh County, McWane still has a footprint locally. The plant employs 218 people, and about 90 percent of its workforce lives in the Lehigh Valley, Carbo said. Schmelzle said workers earn an average pay of $23 an hour. Schmelzle said power costs and New Jersey's higher cost of living put the company at a disadvantage. "But the biggest advantage we have is we are closest to the biggest ductile market in the world," he said. McWane acquired the Phillipsburg plant in 1975. Started in 1856, it is one of the Warren County, N.J., town's oldest businesses. The plant managers said McWane's corporate culture has changed. "This plant, in the last couple of years, has become probably one of the safest foundries in the United States," Schmelzle said. "It's very environmentally compliant." From The Morning Call.