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At the start of this year, the U.S. Injection Molding Div. of Toshiba Machine completed its move into a 58,000 ft² facility in Elk Grove Village, Ill., replacing a a smaller facility in Elgin, Ill. The new plant consolidates the plastics sales, service and assembly functions in one location, just a few blocks away from the Toshiba Machine corporate headquarters and Midwest Technical Center. Expanded basic assembly capabilities allow for faster deliveries of all-electric and servohydraulic presses from 30 to 390 tons. New capabilities include powering up machines for test runs, making software updates, providing special options on custom orders, and providing complete inspections of machines prior to shipping. As a result, new machine installations that used to take three or four days at a customer’s plant can now be done in just a few hours. Besides assembly, the new building also houses the parts and service department. It has over 100 machines in inventory. Some basic assembly also continues at Toshiba’s California location for local customers and Northern Mexico. And Toshiba has added more technical people in the field who can help install and troubleshoot machines.

Other big news from Toshiba is that it will change its name—both in Japan and the U.S.—to Shibaura Machine Co. Ltd. on April 1, 2020. This is a return to the original name of the company, founded as Shibaura Machine Tool Co. in 1938. The change also reflects the formal separation of Toshiba Machine from the larger Toshiba Corp. in 2017 (see May ’17 Starting Up).