On Oct. 31, Milwaukee Tool announced its newest cordless line, the MX FUEL Equipment System. PM Chief Editor Nicole Krawcke previewed the new tool line back in June during Milwaukee Tool’s New Product Symposium. PM sat down with Andrew Plowman, vice president of product management for Milwaukee Tool to get some more insight on the six new products being introduced.

PM: Why has Milwaukee Tool decided to add the MX FUEL lineup to its product offerings?

AP: The capabilities of cordless technology have been pushed to new limits, providing new solutions that challenge existing perceptions of what can be powered by cordless technology. However, while power tools have received considerable benefits from cordless technology, the same cannot be as readily said about light equipment.

Exposure to emissions, vibration and noise continues to create prevalent health concerns for professionals in the construction trades. The MX FUEL Equipment System is the output of years of tireless research and investment in new technology, ground-up development of new batteries, motors and electronics — all simultaneously developed under one roof. Designed to take on the very same gas and AC equipment that the professional trades have depended on for years, this system eliminates the emissions, and reduces the overall noise, vibration and frustrations of gas maintenance that have been deemed acceptable on jobsites for decades — and eliminates tripping breakers, voltage drops and trip hazards.

PM: How long has Milwaukee Tool been working on this new line? What was the process for it?

AP: Like everything that Milwaukee does, we started in the field, with users, learning their applications and environments. We spent more than 10,000 hours with users on thousands of jobsites globally and found considerable safety and productivity challenges from gas headaches to design features that were causing stress on users’ bodies over time.

In order to achieve this level of cordless capability, we needed to simultaneously drive ground-up development of all three cordless technologies at once. The MX FUEL system has:

• The largest and most powerful Powerstate Brushless Motor Milwaukee has delivered to-date;
• A new realm of Redlink Plus electronics design to achieve and manage extremely high power levels for long application durations; and
• MX Fuel Redlithium battery packs that utilize the best cells, electronics, and pack construction to support equipment of this size and capability.

Each of the solutions on the MX FUEL System are all tied together on a single, compatible platform that will grow with additional solutions over the years to come.

PM: What are the advantages of Milwaukee Tool’s MX FUEL system compared to the traditional gas and power cord tools?

AP: The continued investments in cordless technology, as seen in MX FUEL, are now unlocking capabilities in product categories that were once never thought of as viable cordless options. The ability for cordless technology to now eliminate the emissions, noise, vibration, gas maintenance and overall safety risks associated with current gas and corded light equipment will undoubtedly have a profound ongoing impact on the safety and productivity
of contractors.

PM: Are there any limitations to the new MX FUEL system?

AP: Yes, there is larger equipment out of reach for MX FUEL technology today, but this is just the beginning for MX FUEL. Our M18 system has been completely compatible for 10-plus years, and still today, we keep pushing the limits on what it can do. Just last year, we doubled the capability of M18. We have built enormous capabilities into the MX FUEL infrastructure, and will continue to push this technology forward in a big way. At Milwaukee, we view limitations as a temporary problem.