Inc. visits Baltimore’s manufacturers and finds robots

The loss of manufacturing jobs in Baltimore is often discussed when the national press comes to town.
For National Small Business Week, Inc. magazine took a tour of the family-owned factories that are still up and running. Names such as Marlin Steel, Lion Brothers, Danko Arlington and Tulkoff Food Products appear throughout.
“The Baltimore area makes a fine petri dish for studying small manufacturers,” writes Inc.‘s Leigh Buchanan.
One key is technology — namely robots. Lakeland-based Marlin Steel’s shift from producing bagel baskets to airplane parts grabs the headline, but it’s the robots that enable the current productivity (they also changed workers’ job descriptions in the process). As CEO Drew Greenblatt sees it, automating is the difference between existing or not for manufacturers.
In West Baltimore’s Lucille Park, Danko Arlington still has molten metal in its processes of casting aluminum and bronze sand castings, but utilizes CAD and 3D printers to create molds and casts where the hot stuff is poured.
“The company is a remarkable amalgam of the latest technologies — representing an aggregate investment of more than $1 million — and processes that look almost medieval,” Buchanan writes.
Of course, no look at manufacturing’s revival in Baltimore would be complete without Under Armour. In a separate piece, Inc. also looks at Kevin Plank’s vision for Port Covington, and what’s already happening at City Garage.