We recently had the opportunity to visit Industry Nine Components in Asheville, NC and here is a gallery of images of the day in the life of that cool brand.
Industry Nine is located in an industrial park region of Ashville, NC and without any signage out front it would be fairly easy to drive past the company without realizing what you just missed. The only signage out front is for Turnamics, the large parent company of Industry Nine who manufacturers a huge array of items for industry and government. With that much manufacturing power at the finger tips, pretty much all tooling for Industry Nine is done in house and the only items on an I9 wheel not created within are rims, rim strips and the decals.
As you walk through the impressive facility you move past endless rows of machines where spokes, hubs, cassette bodies and much more are created and eventually anodized and laser etched. In one room the wheels are lovingly assembled, before being shipped out all over the world. But individual hubs and spoke sets are also leaving the facility to eventually be featured on trails or roads under passionate cyclists. We also noticed that the days without Industry Nine signage are coming to an end with a big metal branding effort currently on the way in one of the buildings.
The Industry Nine name itself is a play on this being the ninth brand to be spun off the parent company Turnamics.
All images © Herbert Krabel / slowtwitch.com
A closer look at the cassette body and the engagement mechanism of an Industry Nine hub.
Soon a large sign out front will point the way to this facility.
These billets of aluminum will soon be turned into hubs.
Very early in the machining process of an Industry Nine hub.
Looking good already, but still a long way from being finished.
This looks much more like it, but there is more to do still.
The raw material of the spokes.
Four machines in a row spit out a spoke every 2 minutes or so.
All anodizing is done in house and here are some of the tanks in action.
A set of black spokes get rinsed off early in the anodizing process by Drew Hager, the man in charge of that effort.
These racks held hubs and are now awaiting to be stripped before the next set goes on them.
Eric Muehl laces up a wheel.
With a color full background of hubs and spokes nearby, Ted Quevedo trues up a wheel with great focus.
Production manager Keith Thompson looks over what still needs to ship.
Soon in the hands of the rightful owner.
Final touches on a wheel.
These spokes are also ready to travel around the world.
Owner Clint Spiegel is a passionate cyclist.
The Industry Nine road wheels are quite nice but not as loud in terms of colors.
Old rims have turned into quite an artwork in front of Industry Nine. And this artwork is constantly evolving.
