Controlling factors

XYZ Machine Tools’ philosophy of offering ‘what the customer needs’ has led to its Heavy-Duty (HD) range of vertical machining centres being made available with the Heidenhain TNC 620 control.

“We offered Heidenhain as a control option many years ago, but found it a slow seller due in part to the additional cost and complexity of the system,” says Nigel Atherton, managing director, XYZ Machine Tools.

“However, with recent changes to the Heidenhain control system such as the addition of touchscreen technology, along with a more modern and compact user-interface, we can now see opportunities that fully justify adding it to our HD series of machines.

“Our independence as a machine tool supplier means that we are free to adapt our machine range to suit the changes in customer demand, such as offering a choice of control. It is our view that we have to ensure that our customers have the right machine for their business and our ability to adapt quickly means we can achieve that.”

The Heidenhain control option will initially be available on the XYZ 660HD, XYZ 800HD and XYZ 1100HD vertical machining centres. The move will allow XYZ to access business that it was previously excluded from where Heidenhain controls are popular such as mould and die and aerospace, as well as in the education market.

A further opportunity was highlighted by XYZ’s market intelligence which indicated that a high number of older Heidenhain-controlled machines are coming to the end of their lifespan and will need replacing.

“We recognise that control choice is important to customers and that they tend to be loyal to a particular control due to their expertise and familiarity with it,” Mr Atherton adds. “Extending our use of Heidenhain controls to our HD series of machines – we already offer Heidenhain on our flagship UMC-5X machine – was a logical step and one that is already proving popular.

“It was encouraging that before the first machines arrived at our factory we had already received orders for machines with Heidenhain controls fitted and this fully justified our decision to pre-order 50 machines for stock. The Heidenhain control will enhance our range and provide choice to customers.”

XYZ Machine Tools www.xyzmachinetools.com