Speaking of PTO, why are they made in Italy?

Why is it that every PTO shaft I have is made in Italy?

Probably a price related issue

Because the price has driven. Most American plants overseas.

Italy makes a lot of farm equipment, so they may have a lot of vertical integration or at least the manufacturing demand to support a local PTO manufacturer.

(quoted from post at 05:08:37 06/11/20) Why is it that every PTO shaft I have is made in Italy?

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Is all your equipment fairly new and made in Eastern Europe?

I too have wondered what makes Italy such a hot spot for manufacturing. Crawler tracks, hyd. valves , pumps and motors are all coming form over there. Like you said pto's and a lot of small 3 pt equipment comes from there too.

Its another one of china s mfg locations.

Northern Italy is a highly industrialized area with lots of high-precision manufacturing, specifically with powertrain and hydraulic components. Gearbox companies like Comer, Bondioli, Bonfiglioli, Brevini, and others are all located in this region and others like Waltersheid have manufacturing facilities there. Driveshafts are a common "we also have" type of component for gearbox companies to offer so as a result many drivelines come from Italy as well.

That's not true. Corporate greed and lack of loyalty to the USA is what I see. 30-40% profit isn't good enough for the corporate masters when they think they can do better.

I have been in manufacturing since 1973, we have extremely efficient and profitable manufacturing processes, just nobody that works for 4.00 an hour.

Remember the corporate class buying up strong companies, breaking them up and selling off the assets? That didn't help either. Plus, you had and have government policies favoring overseas investments.

I expect that the World Trade Organization and the World Economic Forum have much power
over this. Some countries are delegated certain areas. For example, the US and France for airliners. US and UK for banking. I'm not into all the details. This goes way back to the end of WWII, when the victors decided that it was better to break up and move supply chains around so that it would be harder to start and maintain a new war. At the same time, they allowed countries to buy what they wanted, where they wanted it, so they wouldn't have to invade somewhere to get it. It appears that France and Italy are advancing more into the power transmission fields. As investors, it makes it more efficient to reduce the number of competitors, so that duplication of facilities and expertise is reduced. The ultimate, is a robotic factory with expensive machines, but few employees.

I don't think many people in Italy work for $4 either. I am in the herbicide application business and a lot of high quality spray stuff comes from Italy. Maybe someone there had a patent on the triangular PTO shaft. they do seem to be very superior to what we used to use.

For the past 15 years all of the new heavy wall Reactors and vessels for the refinery I work in have come from Italy. Reactors have 8"-12" thick walls and are high in chrome content. The machinery for a factory that does this must be huge and need a skilled labor pool. 24 months required to get finished product or 18 months if you pay extra.

Italy is not exactly know for having cheap labor OR producing inexpensive products, so I can't see any rationale for blaming it on "American greed."

Shaun .... is that a fact or just a wild guess? I somehow suspect it is a wild guess but if not, where are you getting your information from? Hopefully a reputable source if people are going to believe it. Sometimes we in North American think that the rest of the world is a backwater of technology still operating in the dark ages. And of course, that's not true.

Northern Italy has been a world leader in tech innovation along with the Brits, Swiss, Germans, Soviets and the far east. Too far north a population spends all it's time looking for food and shelter. Too far south and there is not the cold environment that requires forward planning and advance work.

most (not all) wheel hay rakes regardless of what color or brand label they have on them are made in Italy.

The US has turned into a service economy instead of manufacturing economy. I worked in heavy industry for 38 years. All the heavy industry like Philadelphia Gear and Chicago Bridge and Iron were shut down many years ago and picked up be European manufacturers. This includes the steel centers around Pittsburgh. I had to make 2 ea 2 week trips to northern Italy to visit Danalli Manufacturing and then to Stutgart Germany to visit Kochs Manufacturing to check the progress of steel rolling mills to be shipped to a plant in SC. Most of the workers speak very good English as it is a required subject in their schools. Both countries guide the younger generation to 5 year "Trade Schools" instead of college. It takes a full 5 years to become a craftsman in Electrician, Instrumentician, Welder, Machinest, etc. They place all the trade school graduates in companies where workers are needed. Quite different thinking than the US where trade schools have been abandoned, and resources directed to colleges. We have given up our industrial base. I don't see how manufacturing can be any cheaper in Europe. The average salary of a trade school graduate is $35-$40 an hour according to the shop workers I spoke with. Also, from day one they get 5 weeks Holiday per year. Very different from the Chinese sweat houses. I doesn't compute that they can produce heavy factory equipment cheaper than us. Each factory I visited had at least 1 ea 350 ton crane to move equipment inside the factory. I have not seen anything in the US to compare with their facilities. Shame on us for shooting ourselves in the foot.

Cheap Euros also help keep manufacturing in Europe. Works for Germany especially.

Agco dealer was demonstrating a Fendt twin rotor combine on tracks with 16 row cornhead last fall. It was made at their combine and self propelled chopper plant in northern Italy Just across the border from the big Fendt tractor plant in Bavaria.If they sell lot of them in US they will probably be mfg at their Hesston KS plant. Our local small town has a 70 year old steel building company that has had several changes of ownership outside the US ,but is still operating. We also have a 120 +year old water ,well and pump company with a foundry that hasn't changed ownership but is now partially shut down because its Mexican electric motor division,has been closed because many of its workers got the virus.