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It's A Small World, After All

May 4, 1999

"It's a small world, after all. It's a small, small world." says the song with these lyrics, heard at Disney theme parks around the world. And, thanks to computers, satellites, the Internet, fiber optics, SSTs, e-mail and other devices unheard of just a few years ago, it is, in fact, a much smaller world.

An interesting example of how small the world is becoming can be found at the Sara Lee hosiery plant located in Clarksville, Arkansas just a few miles from Baldor's plant, also located in Clarksville. Sara Lee Hosiery Company, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is a division of Sara Lee, Inc., headquartered in Chicago. Millions of pairs of Hanes and L'eggs panty hose are manufactured by Sara Lee in Clarksville, aided by Baldor BSM servo motors and BTS controls.

Around ten years ago, Baldor servo motors found their way to a European company that manufactured textile machinery. Sara Lee bought some of their hosiery sewing machines and shipped them to their Clarksville plant. A few years passed and Sara Lee added more sewing machines using more Baldor servo motors, then made in Clarksville. Baldor servo motors that were manufactured in Clarksville, were shipped to Europe to be added to the sewing machines and then came right back to Clarksville! It's a small world!

Soon Sara Lee engineers wanted better performance and asked Baldor to help. Baldor engineers from Clarksville and Fort Smith responded with a re-design giving Sara Lee better performance and increased reliability. "Baldor really cooperated with us," says Dwain Langdon, Sewing Manager. "The servo motors and controls are much more reliable now, and we're very pleased with their performance, and with Baldor."

At Sara Lee's Clarksville plant there are 40 sewing machines making the hosiery. There are 14 Baldor BSM servo motors on each machine. That's 560 BSMs operating at near-continuous duty, so you can see how their being so reliable is of primary importance to Sara Lee.

Sara Lee also has dozens of knitting machines driven by Baldor 2 HP motors. Langdon, who has worked for 11 years in the textile industry, says, "I like Baldor and their products. They stand for quality and reliability and provide excellent value."

So, while the world is getting smaller, ifs a products quality, reliability and value that really count!