By Andy Owens
aowens@scbiznews.com

Published March 3, 2009

A Summerville-based manufacturer of aluminum products has started offering recycled aluminum products for customers after seeing a growing demand for LEED-certified building materials.

Briteline Extrusions Inc., which operates a 95,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Beech Hill Road, makes extruded aluminum parts primarily for the shower door industry, retail displays, pivot rods for the vertical blind industry and aluminum trim and molding for floor, walls and doors.

“We are seeing a strong demand now from the building industry for their extrusions to be made with secondary billet,” Briteline President Kenneth Kabine said.

Architects are specifying the use of aluminum extrusions to qualify for the LEED certification — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, he said. Aluminum is green and a natural fit for the building industry, and Briteline’s recycled aluminum billet ensures that customers are using an environmentally friendly product, Kabine said.

Brightline, which employs 57 workers, started in 1953 and has been a family business for three generations, said Diane Bagwell, vice president of sales and administration. Kabine, Bagwell’s father, expanded the business in the late 1960s to include powder coatings, anodized lines and other parts of its primary business today.

Bagwell said the company, like many manufacturers, has seen a downturn in sales. Offering recycled aluminum products is part of Briteline’s effort to expand its line and respond to the changing demands of its customers, she said.

“We recycle over one million pounds of aluminum scrap from our extrusion process each year,” Kabine said. “Aluminum can be recycled and reused over and over without losing any of its characteristic attributes. There is no loss of quality in using recycled aluminum.”

Briteline has customers across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America and in Europe.