Skilled trades are one of the toughest fields to work in, albeit one whose importance can never be ignored. Every person, at some point in time, requires a skilled trade professional to maintain infrastructures like homes, schools, roads, and hospitals. Without skilled trade professionals, the lights don’t stay on.
The jobsite hazards coupled with the long and strenuous hours of physical work capacity required for these jobs have created a wide gap in the supply and demand of skilled labor. To help close the critical gaps of safety and productivity on the jobsite, Milwaukee Tool has embraced a culture of disruptive innovation that has helped drive new solutions in unexpected ways, and their approach deserves a closer look.
A plethora of engineering opportunities
The Wisconsin-based company is a manufacturer of jobsite solutions and is obsessed with improving the quality of life and work for skilled trade professionals. Investing in the latest technologies and techniques to help solve complex engineering challenges, their teams are developing the most technologically advanced batteries, motors, electronics, and software solutions in the construction industry. Every day their engineering teams face the challenge of packing large power density into small, portable power tools – it’s not an easy feat.
• Custom Designed Motors: Power and intelligence can effectively coexist thanks to the custom motor engineering that is a key component of power tools at Milwaukee Tool. Each motor is custom-built to minimize space and maximize power. These motors tend to be more power-dense than the motors in many electric vehicles.
• REDLITHIUM™ Batteries & Chargers: Milwaukee Tool invented the technology to utilize lithium-ion in power tools, and ever since, a cordless revolution has taken place across jobsites around the globe. The company designs its lithium-ion batteries entirely in-house, and teams of engineers are routinely developing battery packs that can put out more power and withstand the wide variety of harsh conditions present on the jobsite.
• Robust Communications: Engineers are further enhancing cordless power tool performance by developing advanced electronics communications packages for Milwaukee’s power tools. These enhanced electronic communication packages allow for safer and smarter tools and unique, never-before-seen features.
• ONE-KEY™ Wireless Connectivity: Milwaukee Tool brings connectivity to the jobsite in order to allow users access to rich data on their tool. In-house software, firmware, and hardware teams are continuing to enhance and innovate the industry with jobsite connectivity.
Innovation manifested in tools
Necessity, as they say, is the mother of all invention. For over a decade, Milwaukee Tool has taken a meticulous approach to discovering the pain points on job sites to fully understand users’ frustrations. The incorporation of new-to-market technologies has helped resolve them. Let’s take a look at a few examples:
Tackling gas engines:
Milwaukee Tool’s patented lithium-ion battery technology has taken the skilled trade industry by storm, extending the capabilities of cordless technologies to new heights. However, until recently, these benefits have eluded light construction equipment like jackhammers, cut-off saws, and core drills.