Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH2KGQTeKzc (8 min)

At the end of a long week at the Rippa factory in China, Mike stops in the employee cafeteria to show the part of the visit that is not on the factory floor.

In the video he explains that quality at Rippa goes beyond the machines. Factory workers eat free, with as much as they want each day, and the meals are prepared fresh on site by an outsourced restaurant team and change daily. Signs in Chinese and English ask workers to take what they need and leave no waste. Mike says the cafeteria sits on the fourth floor of the office building, with a fifth floor planned as a relaxation area for employees.

He also tells a story about taking Rippa's owner, Jackie, to a Chinese restaurant in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and why he rates the factory cafeteria food as good as any he has eaten. His point: how a company treats its workers says something about the quality of what it builds.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzOXYy_RVEA (3 min)

At a Powston factory, Mike examines the track tensioner on a larger excavator, after an earlier video showed a customer's R57 whose tensioner was damaged.

He compares the two designs. The Powston unit is a one-piece, stronger shaft with a piston rod that extends further, about two inches against about half an inch on the other design, and a piston assembly about a foot long. The other design uses a two-piece (technically three-piece) construction. Grease is added through a fitting and pushes the piston to tension the track.

Mike says this is the kind of detail he travels to the factory to check, so that the machines he sells hold up for his customers.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAOkccK4BRA (27 min)

Mike walks the Rippa factory in China after a week of looking at larger excavators, and the site has grown a lot since his visit the year before. Where the first phase was about 80% complete, both buildings are now finished.

HIGHLIGHTS

- The new office building and a full display area with every current model except forklifts, which are shown separately.

- Rippa attachments in several colors. Some, like the puller, have been rebuilt heavier, at roughly double the thickness of the earlier version.

- A fresh R57 excavator coming off the line after passing vertical load testing, where the base is stressed to 100% above spec.

- The QA area, and an inspection pit where Mike would like a machine to be driven over for easy undercarriage work at his own future building.

- Grease points on the excavator swing ring and the right way to grease them: a couple of pumps, rotate the cab a little, repeat all the way around.

- A reminder that draining the factory fluids can void an engine warranty, because the engine is meant to run on the factory oil for its first 50 hours.

Part 2 continues the tour through production.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smRrq_bb064 (28 min)

In the second half of his factory tour, Mike moves from the finished machines into the production areas of the Rippa factory.

WHAT HE SHOWS

- Skid steer and loader assembly, including RS06 mini skid steers being built, and the operator seat he likes.

- The paint booth area, which is much larger than in the original factory, with multiple booths.

- A comparison of welds on older machines (February 2025 and earlier) with current ones, which he says are a world of difference.

- Where large steel sheets come in and are cut on CNC tables before frames are assembled.

- The machine shop, which now runs many more machines than the three he saw the year before, cutting bar stock into parts.

- A third building under construction next to the finished second one.

Mike also demonstrates the proper way to grease the excavator swing gear: two to three pumps, rotate the cab a little, and repeat around the machine so the teeth are covered evenly. The tour ends after about an hour in the factory, followed by a look at finished machines.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxSOZbBnvaU (3 min)

Mike walks through the parts area of a Powston assembly plant at shift change as workers restock shelves for the next shift.

WHAT YOU'LL SEE

- Hundreds of hydraulic cylinders in every size, from thumb and quick-attach cylinders to large boom cylinders.

- Bins of pins, including very large ones, plus hydraulic hoses in different diameters and lengths, floor mats for each model, and Kubota engines staged for the night's builds.

- Factory rhythm: two shifts a day of about seven hours each, six days a week, with the shelves nearly emptied by morning.

Mike says Powston told him that pin steel hardness was an issue for them a couple of years ago, the same problem Rippa is working on, and that it has since been corrected so the pins don't wear out quickly.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z735rQ_vRgI (8 min)

Mike follows excavators through final assembly at a Powston factory, from bare bases to machines with engines and hydraulics installed.

WHAT THE VIDEO SHOWS

- Kitting: workers lay out all the hydraulic hoses and cylinders needed for each machine before it is assembled, so each station has what it needs.

- Models in line include the PE30 and one-ton machines, with Kubota diesel engines being mounted. Bolts are fingertight at this stage and torqued to spec afterward with an impact tool.

- Swing boom cylinders and other parts being fitted at the right stage.

- A greasing tip: don't pump a whole tube into one fitting. Give two or three pumps, rotate the cab a little, and repeat. Pumping all the grease in at once means it never reaches the rest of the swing bearing, which can lead to failures.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXeXIH4N7GQ (6 min)

Mike tours the new powder coating and paint area at Powston's factory, in a building of roughly 800,000 square feet that the company expects to move into next year.

WHAT HE SEES

- A new, state-of-the-art powder coating and paint booth, with overhead conveyors and counterweights that set the right tension for anything from a small machine to an 8 ton excavator.

- A drying section where parts travel up a ramp into the ovens.

- Two paint tracks that Powston expected to bring online the following month, painting much of the factory's equipment.

- Robotic welders in the attachment area, each properly vented, with a large filter bank. Mike says the venting was one of the first things installed.

He also mentions a coming video on how he and Powston will work together.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnSUHYVhWQs (3 min)

Mike shows where machine parts begin at Powston: the raw steel stock area.

At volume, a factory doesn't buy pieces to fit. It buys flat steel plate and long bars and tubes, roughly 8 meters in length, and cuts them to size based on what machine or attachment is being built that day. You can see the raw stock, beveled pipe ends from laser pipe cutting, and the cutting stations. Mike also notes that this facility is about a 40-minute drive from the main factory, because land costs far less outside the city.

Mike says he would love to follow a single piece of steel through the whole process until it becomes a finished machine or attachment.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKS5n5KODeY (7 min)

Mike shows the very first step of building a Powston machine or attachment: cutting the steel.

WHAT YOU'LL SEE

- Sheets of steel in different thicknesses, moved by overhead booms and suction-cup lifters, which are needed for plates up to half an inch thick.

- A laser cutting machine cutting out parts for a planned run of excavator models, with workers checking quality and pulling out any pieces that don't meet standard.

- Parts straight off the laser that are unpainted and untreated, showing clean, precise cuts.

Mike says it is the first stop in a chain that ends in a finished excavator or attachment, and that he appreciates the quality of the laser cuts.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.

Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD5v2Jgpkl4 (2 min)

After steel parts are cut, sharp edges and stray bits are ground off at three finishing stations at the Powston factory. That makes parts look better and also keeps burrs from getting in the way of the robotic welders when booms and attachments are assembled. The video also shows lathes, tool and die work, and automatic cutters that use water to keep the metal cool while cutting. Pieces range from large parts down to short sections about three inches long, still wet from cutting.

Questions? Call Rippa USA Sales at 817-382-3201 or visit RippaUSASales.com. We deliver nationwide with flat rate shipping, and you get 50% off attachments when you buy a machine from us.