Ready for the next 60 Years: Ball Aerospace Continues to Invest in People, Infrastructure, Technologies

BOULDER, Colo., Jan. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Since its founding in Boulder, Colorado, in 1956, Ball Aerospace has significantly increased its high-tech workforce, embarked on several infrastructure expansion projects and pioneered new technologies to meet the demands of customers today.

"From the dawn of the space age, Ball has been instrumental on some of the most groundbreaking missions in history, thanks to the creative and collaborative nature of our founder, Ed Ball, and our many talented employees – from concept and design through data delivery," said Rob Strain, president, Ball Aerospace. "We're proud to be part of Colorado's growing aerospace sector, the second-largest space economy in the U.S."

Ball Aerospace, a business of Ball Corporation, has more than 3,000 employees located in Colorado, the greater Washington, D.C. area, Ohio, New Mexico and Missouri, and has hired more than 700 new employees in the past two years. Committed to diversity and inclusion, Ball offers employees the opportunity and latitude to pursue work that is aligned with their interests and strengths, increasing both technical creativity and individual growth. Employees are also encouraged to be active in the communities we serve. In 2016, Ball employees volunteered more than 34,000 hours and, along with The Ball Foundation, donated more than $4 million to about 1,900 charitable organizations in North America.

Ball has implemented several infrastructure updates, growing its capabilities, capacity and manufacturing space. In 2014, Ball expanded its Fisher Manufacturing Complex in Boulder. This past summer, the business began installing a next-generation Thermal Vacuum Chamber (TVAC), which will simulate the complex harsh environments of space, including radiation, and extremely high and low temperatures. This chamber is an important addition to existing environmental test facilities, including EMI/EMC, vibration and TVAC, improving testing and quality for multiple sizes of spacecraft, instruments and components for our nation's most critical scientific and national security systems.

In nearby Westminster, Colorado, a 145,000-square-foot addition is currently under construction. Initially built in the late 1980s, the Ball Aerospace Manufacturing Center underwent a 60,000-square-foot expansion in 2006. When fully completed in 2019, this latest addition will significantly enhance manufacturing, production and test capabilities,enabling Ball to continue to provide high-performance phased array antenna and electro-optical solutions for government and commercial customers.

From protecting our nation's warfighters to observing the most distant reaches of our universe, Ball's unique work across many disciplines has delivered groundbreaking technologies that have helped customers to perform beyond expectation. A snapshot of recent achievements includes: developing and manufacturing the entire integrated antenna suite for the F-35 Lightning II; designing and building Kepler/K2 Space Telescope, which has discovered more than 2,500 confirmed exoplanets; developing technologies that allow people to overcome physical limitations, such as the Semi-Autonomous Motorcar (SAM); building two of our nation's next-generation polar-orbiting operational weather satellites, NOAA-20 (formerly JPSS-1) and Suomi-NPP; designing and building the optical system for the James Webb Space Telescope, which will be the largest mirror ever flown in space; and providing several critical national security programs.

Today, Ball is leveraging its decades of experience and proven innovations by investing in new and exciting technologies, including integrated data and hardware solutions for transformational communications and persistent imaging.

Investing in all levels of its business enables Ball to implement scalability into its manufacturing systems and increase efficiencies to provide affordable, mission-level solutions to its customers, while offering more innovative and professional growth opportunities to its employees. Master research agreements with several universities across the U.S. allow Ball to collaborate with and leverage some of the nation's best and brightest research and talent, to develop critical technologies and support principal investigator-led science missions.

"We look forward to advancing our work on programs in national security, intelligence, space and Earth Science exploration for many decades to come, while remaining true to what makes us so successful: our people and our culture," said Strain.

Ball Aerospace pioneers discoveries that enable our customers to perform beyond expectation and protect what matters most.  We create innovative space solutions, enable more accurate weather forecasts, drive insightful observations of our planet, deliver actionable data and intelligence, and ensure those who defend our freedom go forward bravely and return home safely. For more information, visit www.ball.com/aerospace or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Ball Corporation (NYSE: BLL) supplies innovative, sustainable packaging solutions for beverage, food and household products customers, as well as aerospace and other technologies and services primarily for the U.S. government. Ball Corporation and its subsidiaries employ 18,450 people worldwide and 2016 net sales were $9.1 billion. For more information, visit www.ball.com, or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains "forward-looking" statements concerning future events and financial performance. Words such as "expects," "anticipates," "estimates," "believes," "targets," "likely" and similar expressions typically identify forward-looking statements, which are generally any statements other than statements of historical fact. Such statements are based on current expectations or views of the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results or events to differ materially from those expressed or implied. You should therefore not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements and any of such statements should be read in conjunction with, and, qualified in their entirety by, the cautionary statements referenced below. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Key factors, risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to be different are summarized in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including Exhibit 99 in our Form 10-K, which are available on our website and at www.sec.gov. Additional factors that might affect: a) our packaging segments include product demand fluctuations; availability/cost of raw materials; competitive packaging, pricing and substitution; changes in climate and weather; competitive activity; failure to achieve synergies, productivity improvements or cost reductions; mandatory deposit or other restrictive packaging laws; customer and supplier consolidation, power and supply chain influence; changes in major customer or supplier contracts or a loss of a major customer or supplier; political instability and sanctions; currency controls; and changes in foreign exchange or tax rates; b) our aerospace segment include funding, authorization, availability and returns of government and commercial contracts; and delays, extensions and technical uncertainties affecting segment contracts; c) the company as a whole include those listed plus: changes in senior management; regulatory action or issues including tax, environmental, health and workplace safety, including U.S. FDA and other actions or public concerns affecting products filled in our containers, or chemicals or substances used in raw materials or in the manufacturing process; technological developments and innovations; litigation; strikes; labor cost changes; rates of return on assets of the company's defined benefit retirement plans; pension changes; uncertainties surrounding geopolitical events and governmental policies both in the U.S. and in other countries, including the U.S. government elections, budget, sequestration and debt limit; reduced cash flow; ability to achieve cost-out initiatives and synergies; interest rates affecting our debt; and successful or unsuccessful acquisitions and divestitures, including with respect to the Rexam PLC acquisition and its integration, or the associated divestiture; the effect of the acquisition or the divestiture on our business relationships, operating results and business generally.

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