Consolidation in the motion control industry has been very significant in the last few years. Many smaller suppliers have been bought by larger companies. Thomson Industries, once the largest supplier in the actuator market, was purchased by Danaher, now the dominant supplier in the overall motion control market.
After an intense period of mergers and acquisitions, things may be slowing dow. Maybe there’s nothing left to buy for the giants. But in the race to build empires, who wins and who loses? One man’s opinion on the value of a brand or product may result in the demise of a valuable technology if it is deemed to have poor growth potential or a lower rate of return than other products.
Rockwell Automation divested Reliance Electric. As an interesting side effect the venerable Electrocraft brand emerged as its own company again, providing some unique products in the mix of the motion industry.
The “shell wound” or “moving coil” servo motor has been in production by Electrocraft for many years. Its primary virtue is the extremely low rotor inertia. This technology grew out of the need for controlling 1800 foot long reels of magnetic tape, 1/2″ wide, so that they could be read by computers at, what was at the time, incredible speed. This branch of motor technology stills provides high cycle rate performance that is difficult to achieve any other way.
What a pity it would have been if the Electrocraft brand had been abandoned as was suggested in meetings that I attended some years ago. How many poor choices are made in rationalizing resources in the giant corporations where maximizing profit is the only criterion of evaluation.
Real innovation comes from solving problems and serving customers. Not from financial analysis. Every company needs to make money in order to insure its continued existence and to meet its obligations to its customers and employees, first and foremost. But we need to strive toward better balance between profit and value.
Innovation costs money. Will we reach a point where financial evaluations stifle the very creativity that drives our industry? I hope we can find a better balance.
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