The Process
Fiberteq has one production line that measures 16 feet wide and nearly 200 feet long. From one end of the process to the other, it takes less than 10 seconds for the mat to be produced. The current fiberglass mat output at Fiberteq provides enough material for its owners to produce enough shingles to cover 3 million standard sized home roofs a year. The process is like a large paper machine, however instead of wood pulp, Fiberteq uses fiberglass strains called "wet chop."
Wet chop fiberglass strains suspend in water and other chemicals to make the water thicker. Then the fiber is scientifically laid out on a large belt/wire, excess water is drained out, and the mat transfers to a saturator where resin mix is distributed. Lastly, the mat is transferred though an oven dryer and at the end is wound onto cores to form large mat rolls for handling. The rolls are shipped to our owners who impregnate the mat with asphalt, add granules, and cut to shape and size to create finished roofing shingles.
The People and Culture
Fiberteq employs 85 full-time employees who work four- to 12-hour work shifts that rotate and swing in order to keep the operation continuous. To build the line and become operational, the owners transferred two Owens Corning employees to start planning and building the operation. Those first two employees were a Plant Leader and an Operations Leader. When the initial labor force hiring process began, a core of 16 people were selected out of 550 applications—and 10 of those 16 employees are still with Fiberteq today.
Fiberteq is a high-performance operation with an exceptional workforce culture that is built on the foundation of safety. Our No. 1 core value is safety. The company believes being safety-minded is a journey. Plant Leadership is charged with providing the tone by their active demonstration, participation, involvement, and support of an environment that creates, develops, and promotes the culture that sustains the safety journey regardless of the climate.