Larry Robbins named president, CEO of SMW Autoblok's US corporation

SMW Autoblok, which designs and manufactures rotational chucks, stationary workholding, tooling, automation, and custom engineered solutions for the machine tool industry, has appointed Larry Robbins as the new president and CEO of its U.S. corporation.

Robbins started at SMW Autoblok in May 2007 and was promoted to eastern regional sales manager less than a year later. Since 2019, Robbins has been president of Autoblok’s commercial division, responsible for all strategic sales and marketing initiatives as well as overseeing the company’s North America sales team. He also oversees various projects internationally. His new position as president and CEO of SMW Autoblok's U.S. corporation was a long-anticipated appointment. Robbins has more than 35 years of experience in machine tool manufacturing.

Robbins’ father ran a machine tool distributorship when Larry was young. Larry quickly became hooked on the business after working for his dad for a short period of time. He then accepted a sales position with a modular workholding company. When that business was sold, he started his own manufacturer’s rep business (for SMW Autoblok among others), where he also created customized tooling for a wide variety of machine tool applications.

By 2007, Robbins found his home with SMW Autoblok as a full-time employee and began to prove his broad capabilities and understanding of the machine tool industry. Even in his free time, Robbins talks about workholding equipment with friends he’s met through work, often stating that “his career is his passion.”

Robbins has been a frequent guest on GIE Media’s Manufacturing Lunch + Learn and special-topic webinars, enthusiastically sharing his knowledge of workholding and other manufacturing subjects.

With Robbins’ leadership, SMW Autoblok plans to continue to lead in the evolution of the machine tool/metalworking industry, supporting all the latest developments in automation and the increased incorporation of Industry 4.0. Staying ahead of the competition is what maintains SMW Autoblok as one of the foremost companies in the workholding, clamping, gripping systems, and tooling solutions business.

Established in 1981, SMW Autoblok has production facilities in Wheeling, Illinois in the U.S., plus Italy, Germany, China, and India.