Companies expand manufacturing in U.S. stressing sophisticated technologies

Equipois and Endress+Hauser both open new facilities to serve domestic and export markets.

June 16, 2011

Two very different companies share an important similarity in that they have opened new U.S. manufacturing facilities to serve growing demand.

Equipois Inc., designer and manufacturer of the zeroG exoskeletal arm technology, has opened its new 12,000 sq. ft. Los Angeles headquarters and manufacturing facility. Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, addressed hundreds in attendance at the grand opening event and heralded the company as one of the region’s most exciting and innovative young ventures. Utilizing Equipois’s arm to maneuver a huge aerospace cutting tool, the mayor cut an oversized green ribbon to officially welcome Equipois to Los Angeles.

"Equipois’s expansion is a testament to the city’s commitment to supporting the specialized needs of small businesses and retaining and creating the high‐tech, innovative jobs that come with them," Villaraigosa said. "The creation of the city’s first ever small business team has strengthened our commitment to helping small businesses like Equipois reach their fullest potential and to addressing their needs at City Hall."

On pace to triple its revenue from 2010 to 2011 and to increase its staff by 50% this year, Equipois had outgrown its Hollywood, CA facility and was approached by numerous western cities to relocate. “We chose to stay in Los Angeles because the culture of innovation, the immensely talented labor pool, the manufacturing base, and the support network all make the city an ideal place for high‐growth companies,” said Eric Golden, Equipois’s president and CEO.

Equipois INC

(Read an earlier article about Equipois’ technology.)

Moving from Los Angeles to central Indiana, Endress+Hauser has opened a new temperature measuring device production facility in Greenwood, IN. The 12,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant will build temperature sensors, thermowells, transmitters, recorders, flow computers, safety barriers, displays, and other instrumentation to meet the increasing demand for Endress+Hauser instrumentation in North and South America. The temperature production facility is the second major manufacturing investment that the company has made recently in Greenwood. In 2007, it expanded its flow instrumentation manufacturing plant.

“Sales of our temperature instruments in North America have increased by 40% so far in 2011, and annual sales of temperature instrumentation in North America will exceed $550 million in 2012,” says Hans-Peter Blaser, general manager of Endress+Hauser Wezter USA.

The company says that the new plant will build virtually all the components needed for Endress+Hauser temperature instrumentation, thus ensuring consistent quality. Every aspect of the manufacturing process, from the 100% traceability on all components, through high voltage testing of every finished product, has been designed to deliver the highest quality product in the shortest amount of time. The plant will also have an NIST-traceable temperature calibration laboratory to ensure that all instruments leaving the factory are properly calibrated. The laboratory is undergoing accreditation for ISO17025, which is expected shortly.

(Read about E+H’s earlier flowmeter facility.)

Flow, level, liquid analysis, optical analysis, pressure, temperature measurement, software and system products | Endress+Hauser

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Edited by Peter Welander, pwelander@cfemedia.com