In a business that is already hot, Advantage Thermal Services has heated up.

The Kendallville company installed new equipment to move into niche work in the heat-treating business last year, expecting to add eight people to its staff of 12, according to Advantage Thermal vice president Don Burland.

"The new installation as such has been a major plus for our company," said Advantage Thermal president Michael J. Moxie.

Advantage Thermal Services is a heat-treating operation. When Moxie and Burland bought the company, it had a set list of customers in the immediate area - especially in automotive work and for foundries - with whom it was doing business.

Moxie and Burland realized the times were changing, and it meant Advantage Thermal had to change, too. Burland said their business model was to branch out in terms of capabilities. "It was either grow or die."

They realized there was business to be had at a reasonable price by targeting larger heat-treating projects. "It's more of a niche process than what we were running," Burland said.

The company had belt-type furnaces that could handle castings of up to 200 pounds, but it needed to add the capability of doing larger castings, Burland said. It installed a custom-built car-bottom furnace, a name that comes from the fact that there is a small railroad car that moves the castings in and out of the large furnace.

Work to install the car-bottom furnace started last summer. It was open last fall. Now, Advantage Thermal has 29 employees.

"We're running forgings in excess of 1,100 pounds," Burland said. Some are mining drill bits, sent to countries all over the world. Others are axles for John Deere's heavy off-road equipment. Advantage Thermal's customer is the only forging supplier in the United States capable of producing such large forgings.

No longer a company serving local firms only, Advantage Thermal now does about 30 percent of its business by exporting forgings, Burland said. It's moved from 75 percent automotive business to 10 percent automotive.

If green energy takes off, Advantage Thermal has the potential to process some of the components that go into modern energy-generating windmills, Moxie said.

Noble County and the state of Indiana provided help for the company during the transition, including training grants and tax abatements, Burland said.

That helped make the expansion possible, Moxie said, saying the company appreciates their help.

Indiana Work One also provided preliminary screening for new employees, Moxie said. "We've had good results from them."