PM News: Citizen Precision Will Manufacture In China

Citizen Precision Will Manufacture In China

Rumored to be planning a major operation in China, Citizen Precision Machinery Co. (Miyota, Nagano, Prefecture, Japan), which is 100 percent owned by Citizen Watch Co. (Nishi Tokyo), put an end to the speculation. The company has chosen a slow and steady policy aimed at assembling the Cincom NC lathe series in Zibo City, Shandong Province, China. By December, 2005, the NC builder’s marketing unit, Citizen Machinery China Co. (CMC; Shanghai), is slated to acquire land in Zibo’s industrial park. Its factory will initially manufacture wiring harnesses that Citizen Precision is now outsourcing to companies in Japan. After the new subsidiary’s capability and quality are assessed, its operation will be expanded to include knock-down lathe assembly.

Osborn International has completed the build-out of its brush manufacturing and distribution facility in Richmond, Indiana.
The 180,000-square-foot plant will produce 70 percent of all the company’s power brush products and currently houses 87 employees. When fully operational in 2006, the facility will employ 120. The company is also affiliated with Ivy Tech State College to offer employees training and certification.

The operation recently relocated to Richmond from Cleveland, Ohio, to more adequately service an expanding Midwest customer base. The Cleveland facility will continue to serve as the company’s global headquarters and house Osborn’s Load Runners division. Visit Osborn’s Web site at www.osborn.com.

Acquisition of the Micromatic Textron honing tool and abrasive product line makes it possible for Bates Technologies, Inc. (Indianapolis, Indiana) to reestablish its company name. The company acquired the honing tool and abrasive product line and all related intellectual properties from Micromatic Inc. effective August 26, 2005. It will also acquire the Micromatic tooling and abrasive trade names Microsize and Microhone. Contact Bates at (317) 841-2400.

With $1.575 billion in machine tool revenue for its fiscal year that ended March 31, 2005, Yamazaki Mazak Corp (Oguchi, Japan), the parent company of Mazak Corp. (Florence, Kentucky), is the world’s leading supplier of CNC machine tools as reported by the online newsletter Metalworking Insiders’ Report.

“To be the leading manufacturer of machine tools in North America in up and down years alike takes tremendous effort from all our resources,” says Brian Papke, president, Mazak Corp. “Our focus and dedication will remain on how our manufacturing customers of all sizes can continually develop productivity and efficiency gains with advanced-technology Mazak equipment. As manufacturers ourselves, this remains our mission as well.” Contact Mazak at (859) 342-1700.

The International Screw Cutting Machine Tool Show (SIMODEC) will be held March 7-11, 2006, in the French Alps in la Roche-sur-Foron, France. The show brings together precision screw machining manufacturers. At the 2004 show, there were 255 exhibitors specializing in machine tools, tooling, automated systems, assembly, metrology, raw materials, services and more. Contact Rochexpo at 0033 (0) 4 50 03 03 07 or visit www.rochexpo.com.

Brinkman International Group (Rochester, New York) announces the addition of Ed Kelly as vice president of sales. He will be located at the Davenport offices in Rochester and will be intimately involved in the sales of Davenport Machine and CJ Winter products as well as other Brinkman companies.

Mr. Kelly comes to the company with 18 years of sales and marketing experience from various manufacturing companies. Contact Brinkman at (800) 344-5748.

Mitutoyo America Corporation (Aurora, Illinois) has appointed Crotts & Saunders Engineering (Winston-Salem, North Carolina) as an exclusive distributor for its line of coordinate measuring machines in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. This partnership is designed to strengthen the company’s sales and service coverage for this area. Contact Mitutoyo at (630) 820-9666.