Minnesota Industrial MachineX repairs CNC machines, press brakes, hydraulic presses, robots and production lines for plants across southern Minnesota, from Mankato and New Ulm east to Owatonna, Faribault and Northfield, and south to Albert Lea, Austin and Fairmont. Our Minnesota techs have mechanical engineers behind them, and when a machine is hard down we can usually get someone on site the same day. Call (651) 386-6553.
Most plants down here sit on one of three roads: Highway 14 running east and west, I-35 running north and south, or I-90 along the Iowa line. We route techs by those roads, so this page follows them too.
Our techs travel throughout Minnesota every day, so we’re often closer than you’d think. For most plants in greater Minnesota, travel runs two hours or less. Call (651) 386-6553 and we’ll give you a real estimate on travel and arrival time based on where our techs are right now.
Machine Repair Along the Highway 14 Corridor: Mankato, New Ulm and Waseca
The Owatonna chamber describes Highway 14 as the road that “connects half the employment centers in Southern Minnesota,” and the plants along it back that up.
Mankato and North Mankato anchor the west end. Eastwood Industrial Park sits on Highway 14 in Mankato, and North Mankato’s NorthPort Industrial Park is near the intersection of Highway 14 and CSAH 41. Plants in and around the city have their own page on CNC machine repair in Mankato.
St. Peter runs its North Industrial Park less than a mile off Highway 169, a short run north of Mankato.
New Ulm has a manufacturing base that its economic development office calls diverse and growing, and Brown County ranks third in the state for sweet corn production, a lot of it grown for canning.
Waseca puts 25 percent of its private sector jobs in manufacturing and information technology, according to the Waseca chamber, with printing, ethanol, food manufacturing, machinery and specialty electronics in the mix. The chamber also points to the Highway 14 four-lane expansion between Rochester and Mankato.
DEED’s profile of the nine-county South Central region backs up that mix. Food manufacturing leads with 5,739 jobs, followed by electrical equipment and components at 1,924, printing at 1,913, and nonmetallic mineral products at 1,394.
What We Fix in Highway 14 Plants
Food and printing plants usually go down at the line rather than at a single machine. It might be a conveyor drive that trips on overload, a photo eye that lost alignment, or a case packer that jams every fortieth box. Our conveyor, packaging line and plant equipment repair starts with the PLC and the sensors, because that’s usually where the fault lives. On the electrical equipment side the calls are about machining centers, with ATC faults, pallet changers that won’t clamp, and ballscrews worn enough that bore sizes wander through the shift. That’s our VMC and HMC machining center repair.
I-35 Corridor Machine Repair: Northfield, Faribault, Owatonna
I-35 carries a different kind of manufacturing: sheet metal, glass, HVAC and food.
Northfield, according to Rice County, has a business climate built on high tech, biotech and education, with cereal manufacturing and veterinary pharmaceuticals among its employers and I-35 a few minutes away.
Faribault sits on I-35 with State Highways 3, 21 and 60 running through town. Twin Cities Business lists commercial HVAC equipment, electrochromic smart glass, canned and packaged foods, woolen textiles and avionics among what gets made there, and the city offers about 100 shovel-ready acres in its business park.
Owatonna sits where I-35 crosses Highway 14. Its industrial park holds more than 40 industries, making things like architectural glass for tall buildings, HVAC systems, polyethylene truck fenders and modular building sections. See machine repair in Owatonna and Faribault.
What We Fix in I-35 Plants
HVAC cabinets and equipment housings mean a lot of bent sheet metal. When a press brake starts bending one angle on the left end and another on the right, the cause is usually Y1/Y2 sync, a linear scale reading wrong, or a proportional valve that sticks. Our press brake repair covers those, plus X/R backgauge errors and light curtain faults on Amada, Trumpf, Cincinnati, Accurpress, HACO and the rest.
I-90 Machine Repair: Albert Lea, Austin and Fairmont
Albert Lea built what its economic development agency calls the first community-owned industrial park in the United States, the Jobs Industrial Park, back in the early 1950s. Today it also has Northaire Industrial Park on the north side and the 80-acre I-35/I-90 Business Park, with food producers and a corrugated box plant among its manufacturers.
Austin sits where I-90 meets U.S. Highway 218, and food processing has long been the city’s biggest private employer by a wide margin. See our page on machine repair in Austin and Albert Lea.
Fairmont targets agriculture, advanced manufacturing, healthcare and distribution, according to the Fairmont Economic Development Authority, and Martin County is the state’s largest producer of hogs and corn.
What We Fix in I-90 Plants
Food and ag plants lean hard on hydraulics and automation, so the calls tend to be a packaging press that loses pressure, a lift cylinder that drifts down under load, or a palletizing robot that faults out on a collision alarm at 2 a.m. Our hydraulic repair and cylinder rebuilds cover pumps, relief and directional valves and cylinder seals. For Fanuc, Motoman, ABB and Kuka cells, industrial robot repair covers servo and encoder faults, lost mastering and safety fence interlocks.
Monthly Maintenance for Southern Minnesota Plants
Most of the calls we get down here could have been handled on a scheduled visit: a way lube line that stopped feeding, a backup battery that went flat and took the parameters with it, or a hydraulic filter nobody has changed since the machine came in. Our monthly maintenance program puts a Minnesota tech in your plant on a set schedule to work the PM checklist and your repair list, so that work happens on a Tuesday instead of a Saturday night. Food plants in Austin, Albert Lea and along Highway 14 can plan visits around sanitation shifts, while sheet metal shops on I-35 can use them to catch press brake problems before angles start drifting. It’s built for plants that can’t find or keep a maintenance tech, and busier floors often move from monthly to every other week or weekly.
When a machine does break, call before we drive, since a lot of alarms can be worked through by phone or video. If not, our emergency machine repair line gets a tech rolling from wherever the nearest one is.
On-site time and travel are billed by the hour, with travel billed one way only and figured from the nearest tech, and parts are quoted before we order them. Our current rates are on the rates page.
FAQ
Do you send techs to Owatonna, Faribault and Albert Lea, or only Mankato?
We cover all of southern Minnesota, including Owatonna, Faribault, Northfield, Albert Lea, Austin, Fairmont, Waseca, New Ulm and St. Peter. Our techs travel the whole state, and we send whichever tech is closest to your plant.
How far away is a tech from a plant in southern Minnesota?
Our techs travel throughout Minnesota every day, so we’re often closer than you’d think. For most plants in greater Minnesota, travel runs two hours or less. Call (651) 386-6553 and we’ll give you a real estimate on travel and arrival time based on where our techs are right now.
Can you work on food plant equipment, not just CNC machines?
Yes. We repair conveyors, packaging lines, hydraulic systems, robots and the PLCs that run them, along with CNC machines, press brakes and fabrication equipment.
Our line is hard down in Austin. How fast can someone get here?
For a hard-down machine we can usually respond the same day anywhere in Minnesota. Call (651) 386-6553 with the alarm, the machine model and what it was doing when it stopped.
What does a service call to southern Minnesota cost?
On-site time and travel are billed by the hour, and travel is billed one way only, figured from wherever our nearest tech is. Parts are quoted before we order them. Current rates are on our rates page.
Do you offer maintenance contracts in Owatonna or Albert Lea?
Yes. Our techs come on a set schedule, most plants starting monthly, to work the PM checklist and your repair list and keep critical spares in order. Each program is quoted per plant after a walk-through.
Can you look at the problem over the phone first?
Yes, and we’d rather start there. Send the alarm number, a short video and a photo of the data plate. Some problems get fixed on the call, and the rest tell us what to bring.