The ability to invent, envision, and create something new is central to ITW’s longevity and profitable growth. Our innovation is “80/20 enabled,” meaning that we draw deep insights from our key customer relationships, and then focus our efforts on designing and patenting new products and components that solve their specific challenges. Encouraging new ideas—whether they come from engineers, chemists, or other members of the ITW team—and providing a supportive, entrepreneurial framework, has produced ITW’s strong culture of sustainable differentiation through innovation.
Food Equipment
Greener technology for the food industry
For over a century improvements, especially automation, have revolutionized the modern food and hospitality industry. However, today’s customers want more—especially greater sustainability and higher energy efficiency. The innovators at ITW Hobart have answered the call... Learn More
Consumer Packaging
Sustainable, convenient food storage
Consumers are increasingly aware of the environmental impact of their purchasing decisions. To address these concerns, ITW’s Zip-Pak® commissioned research to assess their innovative packaging. The results show significantly lower energy consumption, solid waste generation... Learn More
Test & Measurement and Electronics
Better product testing, lower environmental impact
From tiny medical implants to massive suspension bridges, testing is critical to ensuring that the structures, products and materials which touch our lives can stand up to the demands of daily use. But multiple rounds of fatigue testing is an energy-intensive process... Learn More
Test & Measurement and Electronics
Up-to-the-minute improvements for advanced miniaturization
It’s critical for electronics makers to respond to rapid changes in the consumer marketplace—they need to speed their products to market in order to stay competitive in a fast-moving industry. The electronics assembly industry must keep pace with complex manufacturing challenges… Learn More
Food Equipment
Greater usability means improved food safety
At ITW’s Traulsen company, blast chiller technology—cooling food quickly to avoid bacterial growth—just keeps getting better. Customers asked for a blast chiller that was less complicated to use, so the engineers set to work designing a more manageable, user-friendly chiller... Learn More
Polymers & Fluids
Advances in turbine construction support boom in wind power
Wind energy is not new, and many improvements have been made to the wind turbines of yesteryear. But as the world seeks out new sources of clean energy, interest in wind power has surged. The wind power marketplace has been re-energized with new thinking in design... Learn More
Automotive OEM
A safer, cleaner way to fuel vehicles
What began as a plastic fastener spin-off at ITW Fastex—just two desks in the corner of their accounting department—is now an industry leading developer and manufacturer of molded products for automotive applications. ITW Deltar has not looked back, continuing to create products that solve customers’ problems... Learn More
Consumer Packaging
Beverage packaging that transformed an industry
In the late 1950s ITW inventor Jules Poupitch was searching for a way to hold soft drink and beer cans together without the flimsy metal clips or heavy wooden boxes beverage manufacturers used. He pushed a few cans into a sheet of plastic and pushed them off a table. To his satisfaction... Learn More
Construction Products
Hook idea arises from a need close to home
Innovative product ideas can come from any type of customer. In the case of the ITW Buildex® Tornado Hook, inventor Rich Ernst developed the idea for his daughter. She was trying to hang a mop in her closet and couldn’t hit a stud. Ernst went to work and designed a U-hook that can be installed anywhere… Learn More
Welding
Weld process monitoring yields enhanced productivity
Embedding a monitoring system within a welding platform has upped the ante for value in the high-tech welding equipment industry. That’s because actionable welding information is a powerful tool in the quest for continuous improvement; it drives productivity improvements and enhances quality... Learn More
Automotive OEM
Simple ideas help the auto industry take off—and keep growing
When ITW acquired Shakeproof Screw and Lock company in the 1920s, the timing could not have been better. Americans’ demand for mass-produced automobiles was rising at an incredible rate... Learn More
Test & Measurement and Electronics
Advanced gas delivery device supports innovation in consumer electronics
The booming global consumer electronics industry depends on the semiconductor materials used in computers, TVs and audio players, as well as more advanced electronics... Learn More
Construction Products
Cordless nailers revolutionize construction work sites
Over 25 years ago, ITW’s Paslode® division invented the first cordless nailer, providing contractors, builders and remodelers with the ultimate in productivity and convenience… Learn More
Test & Measurement and Electronics
High-performance, lead-free circuit board manufacturing
The introduction of lead-free solder metal alloys to the electronics industry—a component essential to the circuit boards used in most electronic devices—offers important environmental benefits... Learn More
Test & Measurement and Electronics
Next-generation X-ray inspection boosts food safety, productivity
Food quality standards are coming under increasing scrutiny, and food processing companies must adhere to stringent codes of practice before products land on retailers’ shelves. Engineers at ITW’s Loma Systems, a specialist supplier of metal detection, checkweighing and X-ray inspection machinery... Learn More