The region around the Great Lakes, including parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Delaware, Illinois, and Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia, and parts of Wisconsin used to be the Manufacturing Belt, the Steel Belt, the Factory Belt. Unlike the Great Plains agricultural regions, these states rejoiced in industry, the power and prosperity of making things.
Fast forward a century and we see increasing foreign competition, towns looking for cleaner industries, and young Americans who have no desire to go into factory work. Increased automation reduced the number of jobs in the average factory. Southern states got air conditioning and offered cheaper workers. Offshore factories offered even cheaper workers, and American consumers liked the influx of cheap consumer goods.
The Steel Belt became the Rust Belt, and once-great industrial cities languished.
But Bosch Rexroth has expanded its Bethlehem, Pennsylvania facilities, adding manufacturing and logistics functions to a 200,000 square foot center. With American automation on the rise, Rexroth wants to serve North American manufacturers.
Rexroth’s new electric motion control, Indradrive, is not produced at the Bethlehem facility, but it is part of the new distribution strategy which is expected to improve transit time to North American customers.
Even so, there are times when you’re really in a hurry. For those times, we offer the fastest possible service: we’ll literally fly the replacement units you need to your factory. Call us for legacy Indramat support and new Indradrive support as well.