Yaskawa Is Growing

Yaskawa recently expanded production capabilities at our Buffalo Grove, Illinois, facility to increase inventory capacity and facilitate faster turnaround. We now provide a 40% increase in manufacturing space, ensuring we will meet customer demand for decades to come.

Two products keenly impacted by the continuous improvement in our expanded production capabilities are the GA800 and the U1000 Matrix. The move doubles our manufacturing capacity for GA800 drives above 300 horsepower, and the entire range of U1000 drives; ramping up fully in the Autumn of 2024. The larger frame GA800 drives will now be produced in our expanded space in the newly leased building North of our original Buffalo Grove assembly plant. U1000 production will be maintained at our Buffalo Grove facility.

The expansion accelerates Yaskawa’s “Build-to-Stock” program, designed to give us complete control over U1000 production schedules and continue our winning strategy of readily available drives on the warehouse shelves. The demand for the matrix drive installations throughout the country has pushed this move forward to make the most economic sense for the company.

“This is an exciting move for Yaskawa,” Jordan Engel, Matrix Drives product manager, said. “This puts production completely under local control. We can respond to large orders faster because we have the raw components on our shelves.”

Engel’s core responsibility for Yaskawa matrix drives provides insight into the aforementioned growing need for more applications that require the U1000’s special capabilities, especially when looking to mitigate harmonics or when the energy and cost savings of a 100% regenerative drive are needed.

“You get an all-in-one solution for low harmonic, full regeneration in a single drive module with a user interface that is nearly identical to all other Yaskawa products,” Engel explained.

“Because of our 3-in, 3-out connection, it’s easy to install. It’s also designed in alignment with all our other drives, so there is no special training required. There is a common core parameter structure matching what you will find in all of our Matrix drives. For everything it does, the U1000 is one of the simplest products on the market.”

Engel said that the expanded capabilities demonstrate Yaskawa’s continued commitment to providing dedicated local manufacturing needs.

“There’s a lot to be pumped up about,” he said. “We’ve got world-class drives with tremendous benefits. And, we’ve created an additional Buffalo Grove production space that, when combined with our value-add packaging space in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. Gives us direct control over an accelerated manufacturing process.”

Yaskawa welcomes you to stop by our production facilities and join us on a tour to see our continued growth in person. If you are interested, please reach out to your local Yaskawa sales representative, and they can help us coordinate your visit.