Headquartered in Woodstock, Illinois, Charter Dura-Bar focuses on continuous cast iron bar products that are used as alternatives to carbon and alloy steel for industrial applications such as drilling and hydraulic fracturing in oil and gas. The company is comprised of two divisions. Dura-Bar is the world’s largest producer of engineered cast iron bar products – and the only continuous cast iron bar foundry in the United States. Dura-Bar Metal Services is Dura-Bar’s largest distributor, serving more than 3,000 global customers from locations in Illinois, Pennsylvania, Texas, and North Carolina.
Charter Dura-Bar boasts a picturesque campus. A lake and plenty of green space surround its three main buildings, which house administrative functions, metal services, and an iron foundry. Its somewhat rural location, coupled with the large amount of steel and cinder block walls in the foundry, made it difficult for cellular signals to penetrate indoors. As the company’s 10 small cells began to reach the end of their lifecycle and the carrier no longer supported the offering, Charter Dura-Bar was on the hunt for a new solution.
Ease of management was a key criterion. “Each small cell could only hold 15 numbers, so we were constantly having to make updates as employees moved around or phone numbers changed,” says Wendy Zeitler, a senior telecommunications technician at Charter Dura-Bar. “We also had to prioritize based on seniority, so it was very disheartening to tell employees we weren’t able to give them cellular coverage at work.”
