The 2026 AEM Manufacturing Express tour continues to roll on (and shows no signs of slowing down) as it gets set to close out its third of four-plus weeks on the road.
The last several days have seen AEM’s ever-popular member engagement initiative and traveling work its way into Pennsylvania and New York, cross over into Ohio for a stop, and quickly work its way back east. All told, it has made 11 stops since debuting in Norwalk, Connecticut on the first of September, and it will make nine more until closing out its 2026 run in West Salem, Ohio at the end of this month.
“Most campaigns struggle to sustain momentum, but the AEM Manufacturing Express has done the opposite,” said AEM Senior Vice President Kip Eideberg at the start of this year’s tour. “What began as a bold experiment has grown into one of AEM's most effective grassroots initiatives. Since launching in 2024, the tour has traveled thousands of miles, made more than 100 stops, and connected workers, community leaders, and lawmakers in discussions about the future of manufacturing.”
Late last week, the Manufacturing Express closed out a three-day run in Pennsylvania with stops at AEM member companies New Holland, McLanahan Corporation, and Rockland Manufacturing. This week, however, the tour kicked off with a stop in rural New York at Star Safety Technologies, part of Grote Industries.
Located in Avon New York, just south of Rochester, Star Safety Technologies is a family company with four generations of ownership celebrating more than 125 years in business. Grote is known for manufacturing lights for a variety of industries, and one of its products (the Auxiliary Strobe and Stop) is known for being a cutting-edge safety innovation. Mounted on the back of a trailer it flashes amber five times in four seconds the moment a driver hits the brakes, then goes steady red.
“It’s a huge safety improvement on the highways. You see these on the highway all the time, and they’re made in Avon, New York, and it’s a huge safety improvement for distracted drivers,” said Corey Wetterings, Star Safety Technologies product manager.
Following the stop at Star Safety Technologies, the AEM Manufacturing Express headed west and south toward Lakewood, New York, for one of the largest and most notable events in the tour’s three-year history: a two-day stop at AEM member company and engine manufacturer Cummins, Inc.
All told, more than 1,000 employees from two separate shifts participated. Part one of the two-part stop took place late Monday evening, marking the first time in AEM Manufacturing Express history that tour staff “played a night game.” Just shy of 300 Cummins employees took a break from their work, visited with AEM and I Make America staff, and enjoyed a meal together. The next morning saw a wildly successful follow-up gathering with roughly 800 employees and a couple of plant tour, before the AEM Manufacturing Express left town and headed further west into Ohio.
Finally, on Wednesday, the tour made a stop at Berea, Ohio-based member company Carlisle TyrFil. A leading manufacturer of polyurethane tire fill solutions designed to keep off-the-road equipment running in tough environments, Carlisle TyrFil. While manufacturers focus on reducing waste, conserving resources, or finding new ways to lower their environmental footprint, Carlisle TyrFil has focused its efforts on solving customer challenges.
More than two decades ago, the flatproofing industry faced a growing problem. A common practice known as "chunking" involved filling tires with pieces of used tire fill to reduce material costs. While inexpensive, the approach often resulted in tires that generated excessive heat, failed prematurely, and created safety concerns for equipment operators.
Rather than accepting the status quo, Carlisle TyrFil developed a solution that would eventually become one of the industry's first closed-loop recycling systems.
"What started as a need to improve flatproofing performance became an opportunity to fundamentally rethink how materials could be recovered and reused," said Matt Pearson, vice president, global sales at Carlisle TyrFil. "The sustainability impact came from solving a real-world problem for customers."
The AEM Manufacturing Express will close out this week with two more stops: Thursday at Erie, Pennsylvania-based Erie Strayer Company and Friday at Tonawanda, New York-based Midland Machinery.
Stay up to date on all the tour’s happenings by visiting the official website of the AEM Manufacturing Express, and watch for recaps and member company features every week in the AEM Industry Advisor throughout the entire month of September.
