Electron Energy Corp. is a sophisticated business with a simple strategy:

More space will lead to more sales.

Electron Energy makes rare-earth magnets used in radar systems, satellites, medical equipment and many other high-tech devices.

For years, it needed additional space to let it handle more jobs and make larger magnet assemblies.

Electron Energy pondered the obvious choice — enlarging its Landisville headquarters at 924 Links Ave.

But it ended up acquiring a plant at 300 Running Pump Road, moving two-thirds of its workers there and keeping the Links Avenue location as is.

Compared to expanding Links Avenue, the $3 million Running Pump Road venture cost less, added more space and added more parking.

"The space we now have, combined between the two facilities, will support our growth for the next 15 years," said president Michael H. Walmer.

With the second location, Walmer figures the company's annual revenue will continue to grow at its recent pace, if not better.

Annual revenue has risen by 10 percent on average over the last seven years, he said, declining to specify the amount of revenue.

The Running Pump Road location is key to sustaining, if not surpassing, that upwards trajectory.

"When we had our entire operation on Links Avenue, there was absolutely no room to expand any of it.

"In some cases, we had to turn down work," he said.

But with the extra space, Electron Energy is able to bid on jobs for larger products that previously were beyond its scope.

"We're bidding on one right now that's a magnet assembly about 60 inches long. There's no way we could have done that on Links Avenue.

"We were literally up against the walls," said Walmer.

Walmer anticipates that the extra space will be accompanied by extra equipment, but few extra employees.

He foresees the 132-employee work force rising by just two or three workers in the next five years.

Electron Energy was established in 1970 with two employees in a milkhouse outside Manheim.

Its founder was Walmer's father, the late Marlin S. Walmer, a U.S. Navy veteran and former Hamilton Watch metallurigal engineer.

A year later, the company moved to a garage, then to a building on Main Street in Landisville and finally, in 1985, to Links Avenue.

Today, about 70 percent of Electron Energy's revenue comes from military and aerospace work.

Many of its magnets go into traveling wave tubes that amplify microwave signals in defense and communications systems.

These are found in the radars of F-16 and F-18 jets, military drones and naval ships, plus in military and commercial satellites.

Electron Energy magnets also are used in nuclear submarines, the Space Shuttle, NASA's Deep Space 1 and in high-speed motors of orthopedic-surgery power tools.

The firm also wins frequent federal grants to fund research for developing new kinds of state-of-the-art rare-earth magnets.

Most recently, the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency's Energy program awarded it a $2.9 million grant.

Electron Energy will lead a team that includes Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and Ames Laboratory, the department said last week.

They will develop a technology to make rare-earth magnets more potent yet contain less rare-earth content.

According to Walmer, the two-building scenario was not Electron Energy's original concept.

First Electron Energy took a long look at keeping its entire operation at Links Avenue.

The building of nearly 40,000 square feet could have been enlarged by 30,000 square feet.

But a parking space or two would have been lost in the process — and parking already was short there.

Next Electron Energy pondered whether to move everything to a far bigger building and sell the Links Avenue site.

Electron Energy looked around for comparable industrial buildings to establish a value for the Links Avenue site.

Realtor Gil Lyons of RE/MAX Associates of Lancaster pointed the company to the Running Pump Road building.

Then Electron Energy realized that two medium-sized buildings would be better than one jumbo-sized building.

So Electron Energy acquired the Running Pump Road building from its previous occupant, Teleflex, and kept the Links Avenue site.

Teleflex moved its Lancaster operation to Kenosha, Wisc., early this year, idling 88 workers here.

The purchase brought Electron Energy a building of nearly 45,000 square feet plus about 90 parking spaces.

To make the move, Electron Energy temporarily shut down on Friday, Aug. 31. The company was back in business Monday, Sept. 10.

Electron Energy is unique among American rare-earth magnet manufacturers because of the scope of its production process.

It takes pure metallic elements and combines them to make an alloy, then crushes and mills the compound into a fine metal powder.

The powder is pressed and sintered, also known as densified — shrinking its size, stabilizing it and boosting its magnetic attractive force.

These operations are staying on Links Avenue.

The resulting material is similar to a metal, extremely hard but extremely brittle, so it can't be cut with conventional cutting tools.

Rather, at the Running Pump Road site, grinders are used to trim it to size. The material then is magnetized, tested, packed and shipped.

What makes Electron Energy stand apart from other American rare-earth magnet makers is the first part of its process.

The competitors import sintered material from Europe and Asia, Walmer said, relying on others to perform those first steps of the process.

"They don't have a Links Avenue," Walmer said. "That's what makes us different."

tmekeel@lnpnews.com