Front Generator Wind Turbine

Moving is hard to do. Especially big items like sofas, bureaus and beds.

Now imagine trying to move a 60-foot-long carbon steel cylinder weighing 7,000 pounds that is part of a wind turbine tower.

The workers at Vertex FD in Middleboro, a manufacturing company specializing in fabrication and design, are putting the finishing touches on the project this week.

This section of the tower will be part of a wind turbine being installed at Lynn’s wastewater treatment plant. ‘

When it is complete, the structure will stand 175 feet tall. The wind turbine towers sell for $300,000 to $400,000, depending on the style and design.

“We are the only company in the Northeast making these towers,” said Donald Croteau, the managing director of Vertex FD.

“(The towers) can cost up to $150,000 apiece to ship from someplace like Louisiana to Massachusetts,” said Croteau.

For Vertex FD, being the only tower fabrication manufacturer in New England is paying off.

The majority of tower fabricators are found in the South or West.

The company has completed two wind turbine towers, including one on Deer Island. And it plans to continue growing the wind-powered side of the business.

Inside the 56,000-square-foot facility, the creation of the tower starts with a square plate made of carbon steel. It is fed into rollers and then shaped into cans. Those cans are then welded together into one section, roughly 60 feet in this case.

“They get painted a bright white and are then loaded onto special dollies,” said general manager Scott Bauer.

A crane then loads the tower section onto a specialized truck that can bear the massive weight, said Bauer. The winding and twisting old road designs in New England create special transportation challenges. That means the turbine towers tend to be shorter here than in the Midwest, where the flat roads mean longer towers can be transported by truck more easily.

“We are trying to keep ourselves in a lot of markets, including solar and wind,” Bauer said.

Vertex FD is already making vacuum chambers in which semi-conductor chips are made.

The company also creates pressure vessels, where medical devices like scalpels can be sterilized.

In addition to fabricating turbine towers, Vertex FD also makes bridge rails and duct work for power plants.

The company was established in 2010 and has a staff of 30 full-time employees.

The company’s annual projected revenue for this fiscal year is $67 million.

“We’ve grown every year since we started,” said Croteau.