Hitachi bought a 90-year-old company to increase American service on large motors

Hitachi acquired Joliet, Illinois-based Electric Motors Co. to expand its U.S. sales and repair services, particularly on larger motors. The Japanese giant finalized the deal last Friday, with Hitachi Industrial Products, the company’s largest industrial equipment division, taking over the operation.

Joliet has repaired large engines for the North American power and heavy industry sectors for 90 years.

Most Read on IEN:

Joliet has been a Hitachi sales distribution partner for the oil drilling industry since 2002, supplying approximately 1,100 large engines in North America. With the acquisition, Hitachi hopes to grow its repeat business by expanding sales of large industrial equipment in North America, strengthening its maintenance services business for existing products, and entering the service business for products manufactured by other companies. The company also aims to offer electrified products to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from energy sources.

According to the US Energy Information Administration. But growing global demand for oil and natural gas production is expected to increase over the next 25 years.

Hitachi plans to partner with Joliet to provide maintenance services for approximately 7,000 wind turbines and large motors installed in Hitachi Group products in North America. By using Joliet’s sales channels, Hitachi hopes to accelerate the transition from fossil fuel engines to electrified products in mining, refining, storage and transportation.

In its repair and rebuild business, Hitachi proposes a move to high-efficiency equipment, which it hopes will expand repeat business by managing CO2 emissions, collecting and remanufacturing/recycling.

In the future, Hitachi aims to collect operational data from electrification products through sensing devices and develop applications for maintenance engineers using Hitachi’s Lumada, the company’s digital transformation arm. Based on the knowledge and data obtained through maintenance services, Hitachi understands the potential needs of customers and provides equipment designs and energy optimization operations using AI.

Click To register here Break into our daily newsletter featuring manufacturing industry news.