With hints of fall in the air, fitting for the first day of October, the Manufacturing Express visited ASTEC, the “rock to road solutions” company in Sterling, Illinois.
In Sterling, ASTEC manufactures specialized aggregate screening equipment. An example might be when a machine chews up asphalt, then instead of shipping it away places it into a screening process that liberates the components for re-mix and useful recycling. In some cases, chewed up asphalt can be processed and applied back onto the project.
Conveyors move the material from one function to the next, illustrating the ASTEC “built to connect” concept. From the Sterling plant, ASTEC ships globally – during our visit, a completed machine was being prepped for delivery to Bermuda.
“The plant is part of a manufacturing community,” explains Dallas Knack, who was taking time off from helping plan the 6th Annual Manufacturing Dinner to help celebrate ASTEC workers.
“They have been very supportive,” explains Knack. “We really have a huge need,” she adds, because the regional community was originally built on manufacturing, especially steel and other products that could utilize the nearby Rock River. Sterling was the home of, among other operations, the Northwestern Steel Company and was known as “the Hardware Capital of the World” into the early 20th Century. Most of that industrial base left, but now with two industrial parks and others on the way Sterling, population about 15,000, is part of a modern American manufacturing region.
“We’re really building back,” says Knack. Sterling, like many other towns the Manufacturing Express has visited this year, is seeing workforce development as one of the major challenges they face. That’s why the area chamber offers a spate of scholarships. One part of their program is to offer scholarships that might be used for tuition, but also for books or any other expense.
As the Manufacturing Express continues its journey, ASTEC’s Sterling Facility exemplifies the innovation and resilience that defines modern American manufacturing. Sterling’s legacy of steel and manufacturing is being reimagined, and through efforts like workforce development and community support, it’s clear that this town is poised to continue to thrive in the future.With each stop, the Manufacturing Express highlights the enduring spirit of American industry, and Sterling is no exception.
