The Milwaukee New Product Launch Event was held yesterday in Milwaukee and we were honored to be included in the select group of journalist from US, Canada, Mexico, Central and South America to be invited. These are their latest and greatest products that will be launching in the second half of 2012 and even into 2013. Unfortunately not all the products we were shown are ready to be discussed as some may still see different features, specs, launch dates, etc in final production. Regardless there was plenty of very cool innovation that we saw and are fully able to discuss. We will hit on some of the high points here and will follow up over the next week or two with more detailed looks at each item. See all 83 photos in this Facebook Album!
A few items launching right away include the M18 Fuel Impact Drivers which are actually in stores now. This was our first chance to actually use the tool and we were pretty impressed. Another item launching right away is a new SDS-Max carbide extension system that allows any SDS-Max bits to be used with any rotary hammer drill, whether SDS-Max, Spline or even SDS-Plus. Now obviously there are tool limitations but at least this means no more limitations on connection or extension length.
Some items slated for late summer which probably make some sense to hold off on are the “Season 3” line of M12 Heated Jackets which will also come in Black and Class 3 High Visibility. These new jackets will include USB charging capability for iPhones and other devices as well as additional accessories that can be purchased to run off of M18 batteries or connect directly to a 12v DC outlet for indefinite runtime.
In Early Fall there will be a very exciting new product line launching we will certainly take a more in-depth look at with the line of M12 and M18 pressing tools for copper and stainless steel plumbing fittings. These tools will challenge the popular Ridgid ProPress plumbing line and could offer some benefits in performance, features and price. For the electrician they will be releasing a M12 Cable Cutter (600 MCM) which will unfortunately not replace the really large hydraulic unit cutters but instead offer a cordless faster solution to cutting copper cable normally done with hand ratcheting tools.
In the fourth quarter we will see a handful of exciting new products, hopefully in time for the holidays, which we cannot talk about just yet. Some tools that look pretty interesting we can discuss are the M12 SDS-Plus cordless Rotary Hammer Drill and M12 version of their cordless caulk gun. These 12 volt tools have several advantages over their 18 volt counterparts including less weight, lower price tags and a platform that will continue to offer new development and longer runtime in the future, if the trend continues of course.
One last item we think was pretty cool and worth mentioning even though it won’t be out until next year is the M12 Hammervac. This is a cordless HEPA vac that can be attached to any of the common SDS-Plus rotary hammer on the market today. Basically the vac will replace the front side handle (3 size options included in the kit) and will run off the Milwaukee M12 battery. When it is not needed, which we think will still be more times than not, simply 1 click and it comes off. This also means you don’t need to buy new tools just to gain the feature of dust collection but simply retrofit this item to your existing ones whether they are Bosch, Dewalt, Hilti, Milwaukee, etc.
There were certainly more new things in the areas of hand tools, accessories, test/measuring tools and others to come which we will cover in detail soon. Overall it certainly seemed like the red team has a clear focus on what types of products they are looking to develop and what customers they want to go after. Stay tuned…
