Visitors also saw a significantly reconfigured and modernised manufacturing facility in Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, through a £750,000 investment project completed last year.
In addition to many UK customers attending the Openhouse, visitors from the USA, Australia, South Africa, Taiwan and Europe came to see the new factory layout, significant product introductions from Colchester, Harrison, Pratt Burnerd and Gamet Bearings and the launch of the Clausing machine tool range into the European market.
Customers were treated to brand new additions to the Harrison Alpha range – the heavyweight Alpha 1660 and 1760 XS machine models and also the introduction of a brand new, c-axis addition to the Alpha – the Harrison Alpha XC.
The Alpha XC CNC combination lathe takes on full milling, drilling and tapping capabilities, reducing the need for second operation production for one-offs and small batch components on what many acknowledge to be the simplest CNC lathe to operate in the world.
Huge interest was also expressed in the new Harrison EziTurn 330 lathe, which is aimed squarely at the Education market and is designed to bridge the gap between conventional and CNC lathes by combining the capabilities of the centre lathe, with the added functions of automated cycles on a simple, easy to use touchscreen control.
Colchester also introduced radical new designs of their ‘market benchmark’ Master and Triumph variable speed centre lathes. To further meet customer demand, the re-launch of Harrison’s M390 centre lathe is the first step to introducing an alternative range of geared head centre lathes to the Harrison range.
Pratt Burnerd International launched their new chuck force measurement gripmeter that can accurately measure chuck gripping forces on all makes of chuck effortlessly and within seconds. The new Gripsafe gripmeter has been developed to help customers comply with health and safety legislation, ensuring that chucks remain fit for purpose and created plenty of interest from distributors and customers during the event.
Additionally, the highly successful market leading Clausing brand from the USA was introduced for the first time into the UK and Europe, by exhibiting a variable speed drilling machine and a manual surface grinder.
Mike Berry, 600 UK managing director said “Over the last two years, we set out to develop products to take us forward and deliver what our customers needed and the response from distributors and end-users has been tremendous.
This Openhouse has exceeded all our expectations – we’ve had more visitors and more distributors than ever before and they have been able to see the modernised facilities and the new products for themselves”.
“As we manufacture in Heckmondwike, customers are very welcome to see the new products and factory any time they want. We also have further exciting developments, which will be available later in the year”.
For further information, contact:
Mike Berry, 600 UK Managing Director
Philip Cullen, Group Marketing Manager
Tel: +44 (0) 1924 415000