Yamazaki Mazak’s investment in affordable, British-built machines with short lead times, combined with its commitment to developing the newest technology, has resulted in record visitor numbers and new business leads at MACH 2024 last week.
Mazak drew thousands of visitors to its stand and the company showcased eight machines in total, including three UK debuts and its latest innovation, Mazatrol DX.
The recent emphasis on the expanding range of entry-level machines created exceptionally strong interest from machine users looking for affordable new technology to expand their capabilities into 5-axis work, vertical machining and high-performance turning.
In addition, Mazak’s latest laser processing machine, the Optiplex 3015 NEO 12kW complete with new Smooth Lx control proved popular with attendees looking for efficient and powerful fibre technology solutions.
Mazak’s own NC Mazatrol Smooth control also generated interest from customers in search of digital solutions to minimise costs and increase productivity.
Alan Mucklow, managing director UK, Ireland and national distributors at Yamazaki Mazak, believes its message of British-built affordability resonated strongly with machine users.
He said: “The real success of MACH 2024 demonstrates that UK manufacturers are ready and willing to invest in new technologies and that our own investment in R&D and in our European Manufacturing Plant, which has dramatically shortened lead times, was money well spent.”
Mazak brought its highly successful CV5-500 5-axis machining centre to the show and four years on from its launch, it continued to generate high levels of attention from visitors looking to make the move into 5-axis machining. Additional UK-built machine tools which garnered significant interest included several models from its entry-level range of vertical machining centres, such as the affordable VCE-500 and the VCN-700, a high-productivity machine which was exhibited with the optional 60,000rpm Ultraspindle.
Customers showed high levels of interest in the productivity benefits of unmanned running to expand production, with several robot-ready machines on display and the Variaxis i-800 NEO equipped with a Multi-Pallet Pool (MPP) all proving popular.
Making their UK debuts were the HCN-4000 NEO, a new high-performance horizontal machining centre and Mazatrol DX, a new CNC that can further improve production with rapid and automatic quotations, automated part programming, virtual machine simulation, machine process analysis and optimisation. A free trial of Mazatrol DX has been made available to all existing Mazak customers to experience the productivity improvements on offer.
As one of the largest Midlands-based manufacturers exhibiting at MACH, the Mazak stand was among the most popular, with the BBC, Global Radio and Michelle Donelan MP, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology all visiting the stand. Mazak apprentices were also on the stand and, in conjunction with the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA), local schools were helped with transportation costs to give students first-hand experience of manufacturing.
Mr Mucklow added: “Whether you are near the start of your machining journey, looking to move into more complex work or are an established manufacturer, we now have a machine for every application and every price point.
“The quality of the visitors to our stand, many of whom had a very high intention to invest in new technology to upgrade their machining capabilities, resulted in one of our best-ever UK exhibition performances. MACH 2024 has proven that UK manufacturing is in good health.”
Yamazaki Mazak
