By the close of 2012 Citizen Machinery claims it will have extended its market position in bar turning CNC machine tools having a capacity between 1mm and 64mm diameter following investments of $34 million in machine tool building facilities in Japan, the Philippines, China and Thailand.
This will increase output of CNC sliding head, sliding head without guide bush and fixed head turn/mill centres to more than 600 units a month.
It is the biggest investment by Citizen in its machine tool operations following the acquisition of Miyano fixed head turning centres in 2010 and the successful merger of both machine types while maintaining their individual brands. To implement the merger worldwide the UK sales and service operations headquartered in Watford was used as the ‘model' and rolled out as a strategic hub for Citizen's European business.
Said Geoff Bryant, Citizen Machinery UK's managing director: “To support our position as a strategic hub for Europe we have been able to increase our technical team to the benefit of our UK customers and improve our geographical coverage to give higher levels of customer support. In addition, a senior staff member from the Japan headquarters will be based at our premises to enhance links to the production units throughout South East Asia.”
As part of the increased responsibility for the UK and its key role in Europe, Citizen Machinery UK has been charged to increase its software development role for the group. At MACH 2012 its stand featured a kiosk with the latest interactive catalogue created by the team at Watford which uses touchscreen display to provide details of the company, its product range and optional equipment.
From its launch at the exhibition it will be translated and used by the Citizen sales network around the world. Already, its CNC Wizard low cost programming aid software developed at Watford has been well received by customers and is imminently due for world release covering Miyano machines.
Citizen Machinery UK
www.citizenmachinery.co.uk
