October 2009 News

Agreement to Dissolve Joint Venture

GE and Fanuc have announced that the two companies have agreed to dissolve the GE Fanuc Automation Corporation joint venture. This agreement would allow each company to refocus its investments to grow its existing businesses and pursue its respective core industry expertise. GE and Fanuc expect the transaction to be completed by the end of this year.Under the terms of the agreement, GE retains the software, services, embedded systems and control systems businesses globally. The company will be known as GE Intelligent Platforms and will be led by CEO Maryrose Sylvester. Fanuc retains the global CNC business.

Hardinge Announces Strategic Change

Hardinge Inc. announced that it will take action to transform its business model with respect to the company’s U.S. manufacturing operations. The company is beginning the process of outsourcing many of the non-critical components and subassemblies for machines currently made in its Elmira, N.Y., facility. It will be closing significant sections of the manufacturing operation involved in parts production. In addition, Hardinge will retain production of critical components such as collet ready spindles, collet closers and certain turret designs. Other operations will remain in Elmira as well.

World Research & Development

The new Mazak World Research & Development Center, located in Oguchi, Japan, was established to reduce design-to-market time by 3 to 5 months for new products and units, including assembly, testing and evaluation. Prior to the founding of the World R&D Center, prototyping was completed at the manufacturing plant where the product was produced. The new facility has a total of 167,000 square feet, with the World R&D Center occupying 73,000 square feet.

Okuma Appoints Chairman and CEO

Takeshi (Tad) Yamamoto was promoted to the position of chairman and CEO of Okuma America. The position has been vacant since Kirk Kitagawa returned to Okuma Corporation Japan in 2008. Mr. Yamamoto was formerly with Okuma America Corporation (OAC) in operations planning from February 1994 to July 2002, when he returned to Japan. He re-joined the OAC family as executive vice president and operating officer in July 2008.

New President of Mitsui Seiki Kogyo

The presidency of Mitsui Seiki Kogyo Co. Ltd. (parent company of Mitsui Seiki USA Inc.), transferred from Tadayuki Abe to Koichi Iwakura on June 27 of this year upon Mr. Abe’s retirement.

Advisory Board Helps Update Curriculum

Scott Kowalski, president of Tornos US, joined the advisory board of Addison Trail High School in Addison, Ill. (Mr. Kowalski’s hometown). He will be part of a team of local professionals (that includes representatives from the TMA) who will review the current manufacturing curriculum and facilities and help modernize the Addison Trails program for the upcoming school year and into the future.

Says Mr. Kowalski, "We need to help train those kids for real jobs in manufacturing. They need to make sure the program is moving in the right direction. Right now, one of the problems is that the school has a manual machine focus. They need to advance to a CNC-based program." For more information about the program, visit the TMA Web site at tmanet.com

Amerimold 2010 Exhibition Held in Cincinnati

Gardner Publications Inc. (publisher of Production Machining) and DEMAT GmbH (Frankfurt am Main) have announced an agreement to hold the first ever Product Development Experience (PDx) with amerimold, in Cincinnati, May 11-13, 2010, at the Cincinnati Convention Center. In announcing the agreement, Richard G. Kline, president of Gardner Publications Inc., says, "The EuroMold show has become the premier European event for those interested in design, product development, rapid prototyping, moldmaking and related technologies and processes. We will bring this experience and more to North America with the cooperation of DEMAT." Contact PDx/amerimold by visiting pdx.amerimold.com.