SEL opens Midwest plant

WEST LaFAYETTE, Ind. — After signing his name next to 30 others inside the metal door of a cabinet containing the first relay manufactured at SEL Purdue, company founder Edmund O. Schweitzer III wanted to know where the inaugural product was heading.

The box would stay at the $20 million, three-story, 100,000-square-foot facility for electric power research development and manufacturing near the campus of Purdue University.

“This one’s a keeper?” Schweitzer asked the 35 employees before being assured that the first ones going to market will be ready in a matter of weeks.

The West Lafayette facility could eventually employ 300. Production is expected to reach hundreds of relays a day depending on demand, said Leith Sorenson, vice president of global manufacturing for Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories. They will go to utility companies, including Duke Energy and Indianapolis Power and Light Co.

The Indiana site is SEL’s fourth manufacturing location and debuted in late February.

SEL executives chose West Lafayette because of its proximity to large customers and Schweitzer’s connection to Purdue where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering, said Kate Wilhite, company spokeswoman.

Most of the West Lafayette employees came from SEL head-quarters in Pullman, or its Lewis-ton plant.

SEL manufactures digital protective relays and other high-tech equipment for electrical transmission and distribution in Pullman and Lewiston, where it has a total of almost 3,000 employees.

The relays were SEL’s first product and have been refined many times since the company was founded in 1984. When something goes wrong in the electrical power system, the relays trip circuit breakers, isolate the faulty part of the system and prevent outages.

Its other factory in Lake Zurich, Ill., produces faulted circuit indicators and employs 89. The devices hang on power lines and let utility workers know if there is a fault and where it is.

All of those sites will continue to grow as the Indiana plant expands, Wilhite said.

SEL’s Indiana project took years to develop.

When SEL broke ground on the plant in 2018, Purdue President Mitch Daniels touted SEL Purdue as “that very first, big investment” — in Purdue’s Discovery Park District. The area is a 400-acre area just west of campus that the university hopes to convert into a “live-work-play” community with homes, businesses and retail.

In Purdue’s vision of more than $1 billion in development in the district over the next 30 years, SEL Purdue would “undoubtedly serve as a come-hither message to other great businesses,” Daniels said.

Since then, Sweden-based Saab announced plans to put a manufacturing plant in the Discovery Park District to make fuselages for the Boeing T-X, advertised as the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation jet trainer. Plans also advanced on Provenance, a housing and retail development expected to put a subdivision of single-family homes near the corner of State Street and Airport Road. More projects in the district and along State Street are in various stages of design and construction.

“I think it’s too cool — I like to be first,” Schweitzer said. “Mitch’s got a tremendous vision, in so many different dimensions. … I’m excited about inventing the future. So, this fits in real well with what Purdue is doing in its Discovery Park. ”

Schweitzer has had links to Purdue for his whole life. Schweitzer’s grandfather, the first Edmund Schweitzer, graduated from Purdue in 1898 and, according to Purdue, developed the first reliable high-voltage fuse.

After completing two degrees in Indiana, Schweitzer moved to Pullman, finished a doctorate and started his company in a basement in Pullman.

Schweitzer’s ties to Purdue were on his mind when the Indiana plant opened.

As a crew put the finishing touches on the relay box behind him, Schweitzer talked about how glad he was to see SEL Purdue have a presence next to one of his alma maters.

“I landed in a plane a little bit ago and turned to an associate and said how heartwarming it is to be here, again,” he said.

Bangert writes for the Journal & Courier in Lafayette, Ind. He can be contacted at (765) 420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com.