Railex Conveyor Corp
Railex Conveyor Corp has been manufacturing garment handling systems for over seventy years. When new ownership took over seven and a half years ago, they saw tremendous potential to grow and began making major investments in equipment and technology.
“We saw a lot of potential. Over the last seven years, we’ve spent time and money investing in the company and in our equipment,” says Richard Sobel, President of Railex.
Background of Railex Conveyor Corp
Located in New York, Railex produces modular, interchangeable components across eight different product lines. Their customers depend on precision and reliability, and Railex’s team of welders—some with more than 30 years of experience—have long delivered on those expectations.
But large production runs were pushing the limits of what was sustainable. Welders often had to run jobs of 1,000 pieces or more, which created physical strain and led to inconsistent throughput depending on who was on shift.
“Some of the larger production runs were burning out the guys. Three welders working all day on repetitive parts wasn’t sustainable,” explains Chris Capie, Plant Manager.
Challenge: Relieving Pressure on Welders
Railex needed to scale output while protecting its skilled workforce. The physical demands of manual welding were simply too high to keep up with long runs, and the company wanted to free its welders from repetitive, monotonous tasks so they could focus on higher-value work.
Solution: Implementing Blaze
When a large customer order created the right moment to invest, Railex began evaluating robotic welding systems. After reviewing seven or eight vendors at an industry trade show, they chose the Blaze Robotic Welder from Productive Robotics.
The reasons were clear: Blaze offered a more complete system, it was easier to operate, and the Productive Robotics team had the experience to support Railex through adoption. Just as importantly, leadership worked closely with welders before installation to ensure buy-in.
“We always presented it as an opportunity to get them away from the repetitive work, the monotonous jobs, and free them up to do more interesting work. They have embraced it—much to our satisfaction,” Richard says.
Blaze quickly proved its value. A production run of 3,500 parts was completed with consistent, high-quality welds. What previously took three welders could now be handled by one operator running Blaze, while the others worked on different projects.
Over time, Railex discovered Blaze’s flexibility: the robot could just as easily handle small runs of 10–50 parts, making it useful across product lines.
“It was a quick learning curve. Now we’re happy to use the robot for just a couple dozen pieces at a time,” notes Chris.
Consistency and quality improved as well. Once dialed in, Blaze produced uniform welds across every shift. Defect and waste rates dropped significantly, and scheduling became more predictable.
“If we’re getting two hundred pieces every eight hours off the robot, we know we’re going to get two hundred pieces. That makes it much easier to schedule,” Richard explains.
Perhaps most importantly, welders no longer felt tied to exhausting, repetitive jobs. Instead, they focused on more challenging and rewarding tasks.
“At the end of the day, we’re still making the same great parts—but faster, and without burning out our team,” Richard says.
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The Future: Plans for Continuous growth
With Blaze running reliably, Railex has taken on new products and larger orders with confidence. Automation has strengthened—not weakened—the role of its experienced welders, allowing the company to grow while maintaining its long-standing reputation for quality.
“It’s been fabulous for us. New opportunities, new products. We’re looking forward to continued growth,” Richard concludes.