Roundup of some news hires around the manufacturing industry

OnRobot announces Tom Herndon as new
sales manager for the Americas and Canada

OnRobot has announced the appointment of Tom Herndon, as sales manager for the Americas and Canada. Herndon brings 25 years of experience in manufacturing and automation to OnRobot, having gained experience at Schmalz, Joulin, and most recently Gimatic.

A graduate of Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina with a degree in chemistry, Herndon’s new role will see him take responsibility for further expanding OnRobot’s high growth sales and distribution business, offering a wide assortment of tools for collaborative applications, including electric grippers, force/torque sensors, vacuum grippers, the award-winning Gecko gripping technology, robotic sanders, tool changers, and the ground-breaking D:PLOY software programming platform. Hendron’s role will also involve identifying OnRobot partners and integrators in the region that are well-placed to develop new off-the-shelf D:PLOY-powered solutions.

Addressing the D:PLOY market needs 

“I’ve worked with integrators, OEMs, and end user companies of all sizes and I've seen many plants and how they automate things,” Herndon says. “With labor shortages being felt across the industrial sector, almost every manufacturer needs automation for pick & place, finishing, and palletizing applications. OnRobot is a very innovative company, and its intuitive hardware and software solutions enable companies to deploy automation themselves quickly and easily, even if they have never deployed automation before,” noting he’s especially excited about OnRobot’s innovative D:PLOY programming platform, now used to power common robotic applications such as palletizing and machine tending.

“What the market needs are complete, off-the-shelf robotic systems that are pre-built, pre-configured, with immediate availability and full pricing transparency,” Herndon says. “That’s what our partners can now offer when they develop standard solutions using the D:PLOY software and user interface.”

James Taylor, general manager of OnRobot’s Americas Division is delighted to welcome the new area sales manager to the team: “Tom Herndon has an excellent track record in manufacturing and automation, helping to build and expand regional sales channels. We’re excited to bring Tom’s leadership to OnRobot’s American and Canadian sales channels.”

Dallas Industries appoints
David Espino new service engineer

Dallas Industries appointed David Espino as service engineer, working out of its Troy, Michigan headquarters. The announcement was made by Willie Chacko, president.

In this position, Espino will be responsible for installation, maintenance and troubleshooting of the company’s line of coil handling and press feeding equipment.

“We’re excited that David has joined our company. He brings a wealth of knowledge in working with industrial equipment, as well as electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic systems and controls. David’s being fluent in both English and Spanish will be especially helpful in servicing our customers in Mexico,” Chacko says.

After graduating from the Alvaro Obregon Industrial School and serving as a faculty member as mechatronics engineer, Espino was Project Coordinator with Centro de Maquinados where he was support in coordination for project for technological solutions for high precision machining.

Jay Duerr joins Kitagawa Northtech
as director of new business development

Kitagawa North-Tech Inc. (KNI) named Jay Duerr, director of new business development for North American operations. Prior to joining KNI, Duerr was president and CEO of LMC Workholding (Formally Buck Chuck and Logansport Matsumoto Company) in Logansport, Indiana for more than three decades. Kitagawa NorthTech will now be supporting the former LMC products, customers, and services under the KNI name and Duerr in his new position will lead that effort for the company.

Duerr’s experience is parallel with KNI’s product portfolio with 3-jaw chucks, wheel chucks, chuck and steady rest packages, and custom engineered workholding. Duerr also has a longstanding relationship supporting and serving HAAS Machine Tool HFOs Globally, and previously owned and was CEO of HAAS HFO in Taiwan.

Shawn Luschei, chief operating officer for Kitagawa NorthTech, adds, “We are very excited about Jay joining KNI. We believe it was a rare opportunity to find someone of his caliber, knowledge and expertise available to help facilitate our growth initiatives. We believe this is a great opportunity to onboard and integrate LMC products and services into the KNI portfolio and enhance our ability to support our valued customers.”

In this new role as director of new business development, Duerr is responsible for developing new business for all standard products and engineered solutions and provide regional sales support for KNI’s Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan customers.