Moving production equipment is not a trucking problem. It is a sequence: what gets disconnected first, how it is tagged so it goes back together, what the floor has to be able to carry, and what has to be true before the machine runs a part again. MECSOL has run that sequence for stamping plants and Tier-1 suppliers for more than 22 years, in Mexico and across the border.
What a move actually involves
Every job runs through the same six stages. Skipping one is what turns a two-week move into a two-month one.
- Survey and plan. We walk the floor, weigh the load, check the routes, the door openings and the floor capacity at both ends, and write the rigging plan before anything is unbolted.
- Disconnection and tagging. Power, air, hydraulics and coolant come off under a tagging scheme, so every line, hose and cable goes back exactly where it belongs.
- Teardown and crating. Sub-assemblies come apart only as far as they need to. What we take apart, we mark and protect.
- Rigging, loading and transport. Gantries, hydraulic skates and cranes, with permits handled where the load is oversize.
- Setting and precision leveling. The machine goes on its footprint, gets shimmed and grouted, and gets leveled to the tolerance the equipment actually calls for — not to what fits the schedule.
- Reconnection and commissioning. Electrical hookup, dry runs, and production of the first good part with your people present.
Why one contractor matters
The usual failure in a relocation is not technical, it is contractual. A rigger moves the press, an electrician reconnects it, a third party levels it — and when the machine will not hold tolerance, nobody owns the problem.
We take the whole scope. The crew that disconnected your equipment is the crew that reconnects it, which means the tagging is read by the people who wrote it. On the ABB job, that same continuity carried across an international border and roughly eight months on site.
Cross-border relocations: Tennessee and Kentucky into Mexico
A large share of our moves crosses the border, and we run them with our own crews on US soil. That matters for one reason: the same team that disconnects and tags the circuits in the United States is the team that reconnects and starts the machine in Mexico, working from the documentation it generated itself at origin.
Three of them, as they actually ran:
- Carrier — Collierville, Tennessee to Santa Catarina, N.L. Two production lines disconnected, crated and loaded in two weeks.
- Glasgow, Kentucky to Monclova, Coahuila. Electrical disconnection and reconnection of two Schuler presses, tagged and documented circuit by circuit.
- ABB — Morristown, Tennessee to Ramos Arizpe, Coahuila. Three separate mobilizations to the origin plant for disconnection and tagging; in Mexico we handled unloading, positioning, setting and precision leveling of the whole inventory, led by 500-ton Danly and 600-ton Rovetta presses.
We work under the USMCA framework, with REPSE registration and DC-3 (STPS) certified personnel in Mexico. If your corporate office is evaluating a move of production from the United States into Mexico, the technical link — that the equipment comes off, travels, and runs when it lands — is already solved.
Equipment we move
Our specialty is the equipment most contractors would rather not touch: heavy tonnage and complete production lines.
- Stamping presses, any tonnage. Schuler at 1,500 and 3,000 tons, Danly at 500, Rovetta at 600, plus Verson, Clearing, Bliss and Niagara lines.
- Plastic injection molding machines. Container unloading, rigging and installation — a 180-ton machine set in three days in Apodaca.
- Industrial and heat-treatment furnaces.
- Machining centers and machine tools — lathes, mills, grinders and Wire EDM.
- Assembly cells and complete lines. Relocating a line demands a documented teardown and rebuild sequence. That is the work.
- Overhead cranes — dismantling, transport, erection and runway alignment.
And not only individual machines: we move plants. On the ABB project we relocated a full manufacturing inventory — presses, 6, 8 and 12-circuit assembly cells, machining centers, Monarch lathes, Bridgeport mills, grinders, heat-treatment furnaces and Tramrail hoisting systems — from Tennessee to Ramos Arizpe, in a structured execution that ran more than two years (2020-2022), phase by phase, with no damage to the equipment.
Your machine is not on the list? Ask us. The method does not change: rigging engineering, documented tagging, and technical control from origin to destination.
What the downtime really depends on
Three things, in this order: how well the new site was prepared before the equipment arrived; whether the electrical scope was surveyed or assumed; and whether leveling was scheduled as real work or as a formality at the end. Foundations and utilities that are ready on arrival are worth more to your schedule than any amount of speed on the truck.
Compliance, before it becomes your problem
In Mexico, the contractor you hire has to be registered under REPSE to legally supply specialized personnel, and every worker on your floor needs DC-3 training records. If your contractor cannot produce both, the exposure lands on your plant, not on theirs. Ours are current, and we bring them to the job.
Common questions
How long does a machine move take?
It depends far more on site readiness than on the machine. A single press between plants in the same industrial corridor is usually days; a full line with foundation work runs into months. We give you a stage-by-stage schedule after the site survey, not before.
Do you handle cross-border moves?
Yes. We have disconnected equipment in Tennessee and Kentucky and reconnected it in Coahuila with the same crew, including the electrical scope and customs coordination under USMCA.
Can you work without stopping the rest of the plant?
Usually, yes — by staging the work around your production windows and isolating the area. That is a planning decision we make with your maintenance lead during the survey.