Buying heavy industrial equipment is rarely just about buying a machine for the job. It’s about solving a production challenge. It’s about meeting performance targets and overcoming facility constraints. It’s about achieving quality standards and positioning the company for future growth.
We understand that no two production environments are identical. Our approach goes beyond designing and building machines. We collaborate, co-engineer, and problem-solve alongside our customers; we know that the best outcomes happen when engineering teams work together.
We are not interested in transactional machinery; rather we believe in driving partnerships through collaborative solutions.
Engineering Begins Long Before the Build
For many equipment suppliers, engagement starts with a specification sheet. At Bartell, it begins with a conversation.
Before we begin a system, we work to understand:
- Your production goals and long-term growth plans
- Facility constraints and layout considerations
- Product performance requirements
- Material characteristics and processing challenges
- Throughput uptime, and automation expectations
- Integration with existing upstream and downstream systems
Our engineering team collaborates directly with customer technical teams to clarify objectives and define success metrics early in the process. This proactive alignment eliminates ambiguity and sets the foundation for a solution that performs in real-world conditions. We go beyond the paper.
Co-Engineering: Designing Solutions Together
Bartell’s philosophy centers on co-engineering. Rather than offering standardized equipment with limited modification, we build solutions tailored to the exact needs of each customer.
Co-engineering may include:
- Custom machine configurations
- Application-specific tooling
- Customized process controls
- Specialized bead geometries
- Integrated automation solutions
- Advanced process monitoring and data integration
This collaborative design approach ensures the machine architecture matches the customer’s operational reality, whether the challenge involves tight tolerances, complex material handling, demanding production speeds, or regulatory requirements.
By bringing customer engineers into the design process early and often, we reduce risk, accelerate validation, and create systems that are optimized for performance from day one.
Solving Application-Specific Challenges
Every manufacturing environment presents unique variables. Some customers operate in high-mix, multi-SKU environments requiring rapid changeovers. Others demand ultra-high repeatability for precision applications. Some need systems capable of running continuously at peak capacity. Others prioritize flexibility over speed.
Bartell engineers work directly with your technical team to address these nuances.
Examples of collaborative problem-solving may include:
- Reducing scrap with collaborative process controls
- Optimizing material flow and tooling changeover to eliminate bottlenecks
- Reconfiguring machine geometry to fit legacy building constraints
- Integrating advanced quality monitoring for real-time adjustments
- Enhancing safety features to align with site-specific standards
Rather than delivering a generic system and leaving optimization to the customer, Bartell engages throughout the design, and wet-testing prior at our production facility before machines are delivered to the customer’s facility. Upon delivery of the machinery to the customer facility, Bartell engineers assist with the machine installation, startup, and on-site production and quality testing, to ensure a seamless production startup.
From Concept to Commission – A Shared Journey
True partnership doesn’t stop at purchase order approval. Bartell’s engineering involvement continues across the entire project’s lifecycle.
Concept Development: We collaborate on feasibility studies, layout analysis, and ROI modeling to validate the approach before capital commitment.
Detailed Design & Engineering: Mechanical, electrical, and controls engineers work in cross-functional teams, coordinating closely with customer stakeholders to finalize specifications.
Manufacturing & Build: Customers are invited to review progress, participate in design checkpoints, and observe critical assembly milestones.
Factory Acceptance Testing: We validate performance metrics against agreed-upon criteria to ensure the system meets throughput, precision, and reliability expectations.
Installation & Commissioning: Our team works onsite to ensure seamless integration, training operators and maintenance personnel for long-term success.
Ongoing Support & Continuous Improvement: After startup, we remain engaged, providing technical assistance, performance optimization insights, and lifecycle support.
This continuity reinforces a simple principle: Bartell engineers are invested in your success beyond delivery.
Building for Today, But Designing for Tomorrow
A critical element of Bartell’s collaborative philosophy is future-readiness. Manufacturing environments evolve, and capital equipment must be designed with flexibility in mind.
During the co-engineering process, we evaluate scalability for increased production capacity, explore modular upgrades for adapting to new product variants, and ensure the controls architecture is prepared for future automation enhancements. For heavier or more complex materials, we carefully evaluate structural capacity.
This holistic approach guarantees that each engineered solution not only meets current operational needs but is also flexible enough to evolve with manufacturing demands. By engineering with this foresight, Bartell helps customers protect their investment and reduce the need for costly retrofits down the road.
Why Partnership Matters in Modern Manufacturing
Manufacturers often face issues like increased product complexity, growing SKU counts, rising efficiency expectations, demand volatility, and competitive pressure on cost and quality. Meeting these challenges requires more than reliable equipment. Collaboration is key between experts who understand both machinery and process.
When engineering teams work in isolation, risks increase. Assumptions go unchallenged. Integration gaps appear.
When engineering teams work together, innovation accelerates. Communications improve accountability. Integration becomes seamless.
Bartell’s collaborative design philosophy is built on this reality.
More Than a Machine Builder
Bartell Machinery Systems has built its reputation on 85 years of expertise in precision engineering and robust equipment design for Tire & Rubber, Wire & Cable and Oil & Gas industries. What truly differentiates us, on the other hand, is how we engage with customers.
We go beyond the machinery.
We are contributing expertise. We are integrating ideas. We are solving problems together.
This is because the most successful projects are not defined by the machine alone. They’re defined by the strength of the partnership behind it.
When you partner with Bartell, you gain more than a machine. You gain an engineering team committed to building solutions with you.
About Bartell Machinery Systems
Bartell Machinery Systems is a world-class leader in the design and manufacturing of highly engineered industrial machinery for the tire and rubber, wire and cable, and oil and gas industries. An ISO 9001:2015 certified company headquartered in Rome, NY, Bartell has delivered innovative solutions to the world’s most advanced manufacturers since its founding in 1940, with over 8,500 machines now installed worldwide.