Japan Steel Works America Inc. (JSW) has relocated two offices in California and the Chicago area, and is in the process of completing a new technical center in New Jersey that is also used to assemble large injection molding machines. Dale Bartholomew, national technical manager for JSW, said the company had been considering the moves when COVID-19 slowed business, giving it an opportunity to proceed.
The Chicago-area office has moved to Wood Dale, which is less than a 20-minute drive from O’Hare airport. The California office moved from Corona to Ontario, which is very close to the local airport. Both new offices also improve opportunities for social distancing, Bartholomew said.
JSW also is building an 8,000-square-foot combined technical center, assembly facility, service center and warehouse. Bartholomew said that while construction is still under way in Ledgewood, N.J., the company is assembling machines and can conduct mold trials and customer testing.
The facility stocks an array of injection units and clamping units, so it can assemble machines from 650 to 1,000 tons in a few weeks, compared to the several months of lead time currently necessary to get an identical machine shipped from Japan to the U.S. He said several machines have already shipped to customers from the new facility.
