January 13, 2005
Milwaukee tools: good news and bad news
Milwaukee Tools just issued an interesting press release. They are introducing a new line of 28 volt lithium-ion battery powered cordless tools. Now, many people have wondered why the industry didn't do this sooner. After all, li-ion cells are lighter and pack more voltage and capacity than their old ni-cad brothers.
Well, let me tell you why. li-ion batteries have more power, but ni-cads have always been able to deliver more power at once. In engineering speak, it offers better performance in high current draw applications. And if you're running a saw, it's all about dumping as much power into the motor as you can. Did Milwaukee get around this, or are their new tools going to be on the wimpy side? Here's hoping they got it right, because I'd love to shed a few pounds off my cordless drill.
The bad news is that stalwart Milwaukee is now another TTI brand. That's the same Hong Kong company that owns Ryobi. It's sad to see yet another US toolmaker heading overseas.
Posted by danshapiro at January 13, 2005 03:29 PM | TrackBackJust to nitpick on your terminology, energy is the amount of "juice" in the battery, and power is the rate at which it can be delivered.
Specific energy/power normalizes the value by weight, and energy/power density by volume.
Interestingly the specific power isn't too different, i.e. a pound of NiMHs can deliver only about 10% more power than a pound of LiIons. But the LiIons are going to be about 40% bigger pound-for-pound, cost a lot more, and last a lot longer per charge.
Posted by: Frank at January 13, 2005 05:26 PMHey Milwaukee has not been a US company since 1995 when Atlas Copco bought them. AC is a Swedish Company.
Posted by: pfviola at January 19, 2005 01:11 PMGood point. Silly me for thinking that a company named "Milwaukee" had anything to do with the U.S. If you want to read something funny, take a look at http://www.milwaukeetool.com/us/en/about.nsf/vwMilwaukeeStory?OpenView and try to figure out where Milwaukee tool is located based on their corporate page. Their corporate history, for example, seems to trail off in '91...
Posted by: Dan at January 19, 2005 02:16 PMJust a tidbit of information regarding Milwaukee, the corporate office is in Brookfield, WI ( just outside Milwaukee). They still have 5 manufacturing plants in the US.
Ask Black and Decker (Dewalt) how many tools they make in the US (NONE) and that is "an american company".