A Barbourville plant that employs 200 people producing parts for windows will close next year.

Quanex Building Products, which owns the Tru seal plant in Knox County, said the work there will be consolidated into another plant in Cambridge, Ohio.

"While it was a very difficult decision to close our spacer facility in Kentucky, we believe this consolidation will allow us to better serve our customers through streamlined operations," Quanex chief executive David D. Petratis said in a statement.

The Barbourville plant produces material that is between panes of windows to make them more energy-efficient, and materials that are used in solar panels, said George Wilson, the company's general manager of insulated glass systems.

Quanex decided to close the plant after acquiring Truseal rival Edgetech earlier this year.

"We decided to take two former competitors and combine them into one company," Wilson said.

Product line equipment will be transferred to the Cambridge plant in stages with layoffs coming at those times. The process is expected to be completed by July 2012.

The move "is going to make much better logistics and services for our customers, and obviously it's going to save us some costs," said Jeff Galow, Quanex's vice president of investor relations.