Rockwell Tools is a line of

power tools A power tool is a tool that is actuated by an additional power source and mechanism other than the solely manual labor used with hand tools. The most common types of power tools use electric motors. Internal combustion engines and compressed air ...

that is currently owned and distributed by Positec Tool Corporation, a

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

-based company with North American headquarters in

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Meckl ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The brand offers power tools and

hand tools A hand tool is any tool that is powered by hand rather than a motor. Categories of hand tools include wrenches, pliers, cutters, files, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vises, clamps, snips, hacksaws, drills, and kni ...

that are most often used in professional and private

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...

automotive repair An automobile repair shop (also known regionally as a garage or a workshop) is an establishment where automobiles are repaired by auto mechanics and technicians. Types Automotive garages and repair shops can be divided into following categor ...

, and

woodworking Woodworking is the skill of making items from wood, and includes cabinet making (cabinetry and furniture), wood carving, woodworking joints, joinery, carpentry, and woodturning. History Along with Rock (geology), stone, clay and animal parts, ...

. Its products are sold at a variety of retailers including

Lowe's Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

, and

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the largest home improvement re ...

History

The Positec Tool Corporation was founded in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

, China, in 1994 by Don Gao. It primarily sold

OEM An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...

tools to established brands like

Black & Decker Black+Decker Inc. is an American manufacturer of power tools, accessories, hardware, home improvement products, home appliances and fastening systems headquartered in Towson, Maryland, north of Baltimore, Maryland, USA, where the company was o ...

. In the early 2000s, Gao decided to branch out by manufacturing tools and lawn care accessories under his own brand name. Meanwhile, Tom Duncan, the current CEO of the Positec Tool Corporation in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, was the vice president of a

Robert Bosch GmbH Robert Bosch GmbH (; ), commonly known as Bosch and stylized as BOSCH, is a German multinational engineering and technology company headquartered in Gerlingen, Germany. The company was founded by Robert Bosch in Stuttgart in 1886. Bosch is 9 ...

-owned company called Vermont American. He quit that job in 2003 to pursue the manufacture of a line of power tools. He purchased the rights to the brand name "Rockwell" which hadn't been in use for power tools since 1981. Gao and Duncan met in 2004, with Gao looking to launch the "

WORX Worx (styled WORX in the company's logo), is a line of lawn and garden equipment and power tools owned and distributed by the Positec Tool Corporation, a manufacturing company based in Suzhou, China, with North American headquarters in Char ...

" brand of lawn care accessories and Duncan looking to manufacture the Rockwell Tools brand. They decided to partner up, and Duncan became the head of the North American division of

Positec The Positec Tool Corporation, or simply Positec, is a manufacturing company that specializes in the production of power tools and lawn and garden equipment. The company's corporate headquarters are located in Suzhou, China and the head of its ...

in 2005. Both the Rockwell Tools and the WORX brands were originally sold directly to consumers via

infomercials An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...

. Products branded with Rockwell Tools first appeared in the retailer Lowe's, in October 2009. By 2012, the main North American distribution center had moved to

Huntersville, North Carolina Huntersville is a large suburban town in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, United States. A part of the Charlotte metropolitan area, the population was 61,376 at the 2020 census, making Huntersville the 15th largest municipality in North Caroli ...

, from

Long Beach Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, to facilitate the increased sales. Rockwell Tools could also be found in Costco and The Home Depot (among other retailers) in 2012. Kasey Kahne Pit Rockingham

In 2012, the Rockwell brand was designated the "Official Power Tool" of

Rockingham Speedway Rockingham Speedway, formerly North Carolina Motor Speedway and later North Carolina Speedway is a racetrack located near Rockingham, North Carolina. It is also known as The Rock and previously hosted NASCAR Cup Series, NASCAR Xfinity Series, ...

Rockingham, North Carolina Rockingham is a city in Richmond County, North Carolina, United States, named after the Marquess of Rockingham. The population was 9,558 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Richmond County. The city is the home of Rockingham Speedway, fo ...

. They also served as the sponsor for

Kasey Kahne Kasey Kenneth Kahne (; born April 10, 1980) is an American dirt track racing driver and former professional stock car racing driver. He last competed in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in 2018, driving the No. 95 Dumont Jets/Procore, Procore ...

's vehicle in the

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Camping World Truck Series The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a pickup truck racing series owned and operated by the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, and is the only series in NASCAR to race production pickup truck based stock cars. The series is one of th ...

race in Rockingham that year. In 2013, Rockwell Tools was a part of an integrated

ad campaign An advertising campaign is a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme which make up an integrated marketing communication (IMC). An IMC is a platform in which a group of people can group their ideas, beliefs, and conc ...

that was featured on both the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney ...

and its reality TV series ''

Counting Cars ''Counting Cars'' is an American reality television series shown on History and produced by Leftfield Pictures. The series, which is the third spinoff of ''Pawn Stars'', is filmed in Las Vegas, where it chronicles the daily activities at Count's ...

''. The campaign's slogan was "Rock Your Garage", which was also the title of a sweepstakes associated with the campaign.

Products

The Rockwell Tools brand features power tools (both corded and cordless) and hand tools. Some of these tools include

drills A drill is a tool used for making round holes or driving fasteners. It is fitted with a bit, either a drill or driverchuck. Hand-operated types are dramatically decreasing in popularity and cordless battery-powered ones proliferating due to i ...

, VersaCut

circular saw A circular saw is a power-saw using a toothed or abrasive disc or blade to cut different materials using a rotary motion spinning around an arbor. A hole saw and ring saw also use a rotary motion but are different from a circular saw. ''Cir ...

s, power planers,

miter saw A miter saw or mitre saw is a saw used to make accurate crosscuts and miters in a workpiece by positioning a mounted blade onto a board. A miter saw in its earliest form was composed of a back saw in a miter box, but in modern implementation c ...

s, G-Force

angle grinder An angle grinder, also known as a side grinder or disc grinder, is a handheld power tool used for grinding (abrasive cutting) and polishing. Although developed originally as tools for rigid abrasive discs, the availability of an interchangeable ...

sander A sander is a power tool used to smooth surfaces by abrasion with sandpaper. Sanders have a means to attach the sandpaper and a mechanism to move it rapidly contained within a housing with means to hand-hold it or fix it to a workbench. Woodwo ...

s, and

bench grinder A bench grinder is a benchtop type of grinding machine used to drive abrasive wheels. A pedestal grinder is a similar or larger version of grinder that is mounted on a pedestal, which may be bolted to the floor or may sit on rubber feet. These t ...

s. Many of the products offered by Rockwell Tools come with free batteries for life. Rockwell Tools also offers a variety of specialty tools including the Sonicrafter, an oscillating multi-tool that is used for remodeling and general

home improvement The concept of home improvement, home renovation, or remodeling is the process of renovating or making additions to one's home. Home improvement can consist of projects that upgrade an existing home interior (such as electrical and plumbing), ...

. The Jawhorse is a clamping device that is similar in style to a bench vise, but offers hands-free operation. Rockwell also offers the ShopSeries, which is a line of tools aimed at budget-conscious DIYers.

Recognition and awards

In 2011,

was honored with the Product of the Year award by '' DIY Week'' in the power tools category for Rockwell's Sonicrafter oscillating tool and the Rockwell G-Force angle grinder.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://www.rockwelltools.com/, Rockwell Tools official website Power tool manufacturers Manufacturing companies based in North Carolina Companies based in Charlotte, North Carolina Manufacturing companies established in 2005 Tool manufacturing companies of China Tool manufacturing companies of the United States