Mazak Newsroom

September 2020

Mazak Continues the All Axes LIVE Series With September Virtual Event

Exploring ways for shops of all sizes to amplify productivity, Mazak’s All Axes LIVE September event takes place on September 23 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. This episode will stream live from Mazak’s manufacturing plant in Florence, Kentucky, and the company’s new Orlando Technical Center, as well as from Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

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Mazak Delivers Progressive Learning Directly to Your Shop

A well-trained team is crucial for manufacturing success. That’s why Mazak has long offered a Progressive Learning program with hands-on training for all of our equipment at Technology and Technical Centers across North America. However, as with most aspects of life in 2020, COVID-19 has changed the way we approach training at Mazak – and with the help of advanced technology, we’ve made it more accessible than ever, with remote learning opportunities that have been so popular that they’ll remain a staple of our educational programs going forward.

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Ketchie Inc. Goes All in On Mazak Quality for Greater Productivity

North Carolina's Ketchie Inc. takes its role as a precision machine shop seriously, and MAZATROL conversational programming helps its new operators get up to speed quickly. To increase part quality, production efficiency and output, Ketchie standardized on Mazak equipment, and boosted spindle uptime significantly.

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New VARIAXIS C-600 Eases Transition to Multi-Tasking With Next-Generation Mazak CNC

The user-friendly VARIAXIS C-600 Vertical Machining Center debuted at All Axes LIVE on August 11. This powerful, efficient machine represents a solid first step into simultaneous 5-axis machining that eases shops into the technology and easily integrates automation. The MAZATROL SmoothAi CNC, the industry’s first dedicated Multi-Tasking and 5-axis CNC, provides advanced programming functions for approachable ease of use and repeatable high-accuracy performance.

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Mazak Helps Kentucky Manufacturer Produce Surface Disinfection System

AquiSense Technologies pioneered a new surface disinfection system for healthcare PPE, but without a workable prototype, the device couldn't roll into production. Mazak's Florence, Kentucky manufacturing facility stepped up to produce prototype designs in under two weeks, and also offered suggestions to ready the project for production at scale.

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Mazak to Open New Edmonton Technical Center in Canada

Mazak continues its unwavering support for Canadian customers with the official opening of a new Edmonton, Alberta, Technical Center in September 2020, providing direct sales, service, customer demonstrations, application and training support under one roof. This new 7,200-sq.-ft. Technical Center makes Mazak the only machine tool OEM with a facility in Western Canada.

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Manufacturers From Around the World Explored New Technology During First All Axes LIVE

When Mazak's All Axes LIVE online event series launched on August 11, 2020, it pioneered an unprecedented new paradigm in customer engagement for manufacturers from across the country and around the world, with in-depth, real-time access to Mazak's latest technologies and advanced expertise.

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August 2020

Parts and Customer Demand Drive Machine Technology at Shop

According to Manager Scott Vyhlidal, Tri-V Tool and Manufacturing Co. in Omaha, Nebraska, never turns down work or shies away from a challenging part and will give any reasonable venture a try even as those jobs become increasingly more complex. It is for these complex jobs as well as to efficiently meet customer demands in terms of turnaround times that Tri-V has shifted from simple machining technology to more sophisticated and advanced horizontal machining centers, an automated pallet system and multi-tasking part processing. All of which keeps the shop competitive and profitable.

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Pandemic Creates New Job Roles and Fosters Automation Investment

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” This observation was made by philosopher George Santayana in 1905, but can help manufacturers today avoid mistakes in responding to the impacts of the pandemic. History shows that there are two likely outcomes of the current crisis which relate to manufacturing.

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Reliable Machines and a Woman’s Leadership Continue Shop’s Success

In 2008 when Courtney Silver decided to help her husband Robert “Bobby” Ketchie manage his manufacturing business with her background in finance and supply chain management, she never thought for a moment that she’d end up running the Concord, North Carolina-based machine shop.

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Mazak’s Inaugural All Axes LIVE Event Connects with Customers Across North America and Worldwide

With the success of its inaugural All Axes LIVE online event, Mazak has reimagined how the industry connects with manufacturers and set a new standard for online events.

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Fabricating a COVID-19 Solution the Mazak Way

At Mazak, we’re proud to manufacture some of the best machine tools in the world at our North American Headquarters in Florence, Kentucky, from cost-effective turning machines to the most advanced HYBRID Multi-Tasking systems. A big part of this is our Fabrication Department, which leverages powerful laser processing equipment, an experienced team of welders and an automated powder-painting process to create the enclosures for all our machines.

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July 2020

A Smoother Way to Manage Part Programs in the Digital Age

Since the dawn of computer science more than two centuries ago, one thing has remained constant: Programming and data entry are tougher than they look. From the first computers’ punch cards to today’s programming languages, a single, minor error can mean the difference between a functional program and a crashed computer. And when a buggy program is run on a CNC machine tool, it likely won’t just be the computer that crashes.

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Mazak to Open New Edmonton Technical Center in Canada

Continuing its unwavering commitment to customer support, Mazak Corporation Canada will officially open a new Technical Center in Edmonton, Alberta, in September of 2020. The facility is strategically located in Western Canada to provide local access to now direct sales, service, application and training support.

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Mazak Corporation reduces response times and boosts efficiencies using Dynamics 365 Field Service

To maximize customer support, Mazak sought a way to make its service delivery more efficient. Using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, it now offers customers faster service response times and greater visibility into open work orders. Plus, it’s improved the efficiency of its invoicing and reduced administration work.

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June 2020

Now More Than Ever, Technology and Innovation Will Keep Manufacturers Competitive

Manufacturing has always been defined by relentless innovation. Across industries and around the world, shops have pursued cutting-edge technologies to maintain a competitive advantage, from the rise of NC and CNC machining to today’s fully interconnected and online facilities. And in response to the pressing issues of our time, such as the widening skills gap or the rise of mass customization, OEMs like Mazak have sought to provide state-of-the-art solutions that make it possible for operators to be more productive than ever before.

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Mazak Launches New Holistic Digital Experience for Customers

Mazak today announced the launch of a new, three-pronged holistic digital customer experience, which features a new interactive tour of its Kentucky campus, immersive Virtual Technology Center and All Axes LIVE, an ongoing series of robust online events where attendees gain exclusive access to new never-before-seen Mazak manufacturing technology.

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COVID-19 Announcement

I hope this message finds you and your families healthy and well. It goes without saying that the last few months have posed unique challenges for all of us and that we are eager for our lives and businesses to return to normal. At Mazak, we have already taken steps to safely reopen all of our North American facilities, including our Florence, Kentucky campus and regional network of Technology and Technical Centers. Our team is ready to assist you and ensure that you have access to the support and resources you need, safely and in a variety of ways.

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May 2020

Multi-Tasking Forms Hub of Shop’s Propeller Production Efficiency

Whirlwind Propellers in El Cajon, California, wanted to grow and expand its product offerings, but farming out the machining of its propeller hub assembly components had severely hindered the shop’s progress. Not only was the shop unable to fully control its processes and production lead times, but outsourcing work led to poor cost-effectiveness, which, in turn, stifled new product design.

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Mazak Joins Efforts to Protect KY Healthcare Workers

As communities across the country come together to meet new challenges created by the pandemic, Mazak Corporation has been doing its part to support its neighbors in the greater Northern Kentucky region. The company recently served as the manufacturing partner for the Erlanger, Kentucky-based AquiSense Technologies, which has developed a new method for sanitizing face masks with ultraviolet light currently being tested by the local hospital system, St. Elizabeth Healthcare.

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Probe Your Parts in 20 Seconds With SMOOTH Set & Inspect

As manufacturing technology has grown more and more sophisticated, the level of complexity has grown as well. Even modest machine tools today have precision that can be measured in microns – which means part and tool setup must be just as precise.

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Re-tooling Your Shop to Manage Risk in Uncertain Times

COVID-19 has been an unwelcome game changer. The global pandemic will require us to alter just about every aspect of our lives – both at home and at work. And while it may seem counterintuitive to think about a silver lining amidst this current devastating situation, there is one, according to Mazak Corporation Vice President of Sales and Marketing Chuck Birkle.

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April 2020

Roswell Marine

Roswell Marine, a Rockledge, Florida-based manufacturer and supplier to the sport and recreational watercraft industry, needed a solution to maintain its edge in a competitive industry. The right solution ended up being the acquisition of additional technology. This allowed the shop to step up its in-house CNC machining capabilities with Mazak equipment.

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Whirlwind Propellers

In El Cajon, California, Whirlwind Propellers wanted to grow and expand its product offerings. But outsourcing the machining of its propeller hub assembly components took more time and came at a higher cost, resulting in stifled new product design. That is, until the shop incorporated Multi-Tasking machine technology into its part-production operations.

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Reshoring Goes Viral

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a new normal and caused us to re-think how we live and work. In a recent episode of Mazak’s All Axes podcast, the Reshoring Initiative’s Harry Moser points out that the crisis has uncovered the risk and limitations of global supply chain models and discusses solutions on how we can fix it with advanced domestic manufacturing.

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Why Multi-Tasking?

Multi-Tasking adds efficiency to every aspect of manufacturing production. Because it enables start-to-finish production of parts that require a multi-axis approach to multiple processes, it cuts production lead times and part costs by eliminating, in many cases, the need for multiple clampings and multiple machines.

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Reshoring Goes Viral

The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed many heroes among our neighbors, from the doctors and nurses fighting on the front lines to the grocery store and sanitation workers keeping the world running. Manufacturing, both in the medical industry and beyond, has its role to play as well, and heroes throughout the industry have been doing their part.

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Lowest Life-cycle Costs vs. Lowest Price

For manufacturers overseeing major capital investments, understanding the true cost of a product or service can be difficult. This is probably why most prefer to simplify their purchasing decisions by basing it on the bottom-line price alone. While this approach theoretically makes sense – a dollar saved today is a dollar to spend on more tomorrow – it fosters a very serious problem: It fails to take into account the total cost of ownership across the full life cycle of an investment.

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March 2020

Help for Manufacturers During COVID-19

As concerns about the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak intensify, Mazak’s first priority continues to be the health and safety of our associates and their families as we work to ensure our customers’ needs are met. We remain committed to providing the highest level of customer service and support during this challenging time and are doing everything we can to prevent interruptions to the normal course of business.

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COVID-19 Survival Kit for Manufacturers

We’re doubling down on our support of our customers during these challenging times. As part of that effort, we’ve created a survival kit that contains resources for important things to consider as we move forward toward reopening our economy.

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Lowest Life-cycle Costs vs. Lowest Price

For manufacturers overseeing major capital investments, understanding the true cost of a product or service can be difficult. Although it’s much easier, making purchasing decisions based on the bottom-line price alone is a little short-sighted.

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What You Missed at DISCOVER 2019

Visitors who joined the Mazak team at our Florence, Kentucky-based headquarters experienced the state-of-the-art technology designed to meet the challenges of modern manufacturing – and if you were unable to join us this year, you missed our biggest and best show yet. We celebrated 100 years of bringing the spirit of Together Success to our customers and partners around the world, and we had the opportunity to showcase how we’re working together with you to discover even more in the years to come.

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Case Study: North Star Technical, Inc.

In Hamilton, Ontario, just south of Toronto in the province’s industrial heart, North Star Technical Inc. has earned a sterling reputation for customer service since its founding in 1986 based on the solid foundation of its family-owned business. In a city filled with CNC machining and repair shops, this job shop has differentiated itself from the crowd with specialized areas of expertise and close customer relationships, all backed by advanced machine tool technology.

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Overcoming Challenges With Mazak Digital Solutions

When discussing the role of digital technology in manufacturing, many commentators outside the industry talk about it as the future. Shop owners and manufacturers, however, know that the future is already here. In this new digital age, shops must merge advanced technology and manufacturing. They’re applying innovative solutions on the factory floor as more advanced materials and complex part features find their way into everyday products. And to help shops navigate this merger, Mazak created SMOOTH TECHNOLOGY and a full suite of Mazak digital solutions.

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Mazak, Building Bridges to the Final Frontier

At Mazak, we’re proud to provide manufacturing technology that companies around the world use to build the products and infrastructure of the future. Our machine tools cut parts that appear on racetracks and in undersea oil wells, on airplanes overhead and wastewater systems below.

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Mazak’s New Spindle Rebuild Facility: A Spindle Production Powerhouse

The spindle is the heart of a machine tool, and we know how much you depend on your machine’s spindle performance to meet your overall production and business goals. At Mazak, we build and repair spindles better than anyone else. So, expanding our already industry-leading Spindle Rebuild Department to make it a spindle production powerhouse is one of our top priorities. The new facility is currently under construction on Mazak’s Kentucky campus. Once it’s complete, we’ll be able to get you the spindles you need faster than ever before, minimizing downtime and helping your shop stay productive and profitable.

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Diamonds Are a Friction Stir Welder’s Best Friend for Aluminum

Modern aluminum alloys are used everywhere in world around us, from car bodies to aerospace launch vehicles and from high-speed rail cars to cruise ships. Thanks to the addition of various other metals, including copper, magnesium, silicon and zinc, among others, lightweight aluminum excels in tough environments and at high temperatures, making it perfect for increasing fuel efficiency across virtually every type of transportation.

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COVID-19 Announcement

As concerns about the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak intensify, Mazak’s first priority continues to be the health and safety of our associates and their families as we work to ensure our customers’ needs are met. We remain committed to providing the highest level of customer service and support during this challenging time and are doing everything we can to prevent interruptions to the normal course of business.

Read More

Mazak, Building Bridges to the Final Frontier

At Mazak, we’re proud to provide manufacturing technology that companies around the world use to build the products and infrastructure of the future. Our machine tools cut parts that appear on racetracks and in undersea oil wells, on airplanes overhead and wastewater systems below.

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Add Better Welds to Your Workflow With Friction Stir Welding (FSW)

As a pioneer in Friction Stir Welding (FSW), Mazak MegaStir specializes in finding ways to remove challenging materials from the impossible-to-join list, creating defect-free joints with greater strength than conventional welds. Within the Mazak HYBRID Multi-Tasking family of machine tools, FSW technology often holds the key to breakthroughs in production for aerospace, electronics, energy production and shipbuilding.

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Congressman and NASA Administrator Make Special Visit to Mazak Manufacturing Campus

Mazak Corporation recently hosted NASA’s new administrator James Frederick “Jim” Bridenstine and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky at its Florence, Kentucky, North American Manufacturing Headquarters. The administrator and congressman made a special trip to Mazak after attending a high-level round-table event with Mazak President Dan Janka, representatives of local aerospace manufacturers and educational leaders as well as three Ohio state congressmen and other area politicians.

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February 2020

New Machines and Technology to Debut at Mazak Midwest DISCOVER Event

Mazak Corporation has announced that it will host its first DISCOVER MORE WITH MAZAK technology and education event of the year at the Midwest Technology Center in Schaumburg, Illinois, on May 5-6, 2020. Featuring the Midwestern debut of several machine tools, the show will also highlight the North American debut of the all-new VARIAXIS C-600, a full simultaneous 5-axis Multi-Tasking machining center featuring a flexible, automation-ready design and the new MAZATROL SmoothAi CNC.

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January 2020

Make Work Hardening Work for You With Friction Stir Welding (FSW)

As part of the HYBRID Multi-Tasking family of machine tools, Friction Stir Welding (FSW) technology from Mazak MegaStir has already transformed numerous industries. Defect-free welds make it vital in high-tech applications such as semiconductor fabrication equipment, while the absence of filler wire significantly reduces the weight of welds for aerospace, automotive and marine applications. But despite the name, FSW can be useful for more than just welding – its frictional heat can also be used for highly precise work hardening, a technique that Mazak MegaStir investigated in an experiment butt welding dual-phase (DP) steel.

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Shop Runs Full Steam Ahead with Manufacturing Flexibility

As an innovative and forward-thinking supplier to the sport and recreational watercraft industry, Roswell Marine must design, produce and get new products to market as quickly as possible to maintain its competitiveness. To accomplish that, the Rockledge, Florida, shop relies on in-house manufacturing and most importantly on extremely flexible and highly productive machine tool systems.

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Overcoming Challenges With Mazak Digital Solutions

When discussing the role of digital technology in manufacturing, many commentators outside the industry talk about it as the future. Shop owners and manufacturers, however, know that the future is already here. In this new digital age, shops must merge advanced technology and manufacturing. They’re applying innovative solutions on the factory floor as more advanced materials and complex part features find their way into everyday products. And to help shops navigate this merger, Mazak created SMOOTH TECHNOLOGY and a full suite of Mazak digital solutions.

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Shop Builds Success on Advanced Machining Capability

Usinage R.A. Inc.’s (URA) customers are loyal. Upwards of 90 percent of the shop’s work is repeat business, and some customers have been with URA since its founding, according to co-owner Daniel Vachon. In fact the majority of the Drummondville, Quebec-based shop’s customers have been with URA for at least 10 years, including several who have worked with the shop for over 30 years, a remarkable loyalty that the team at URA attributes to its fast turnaround and high quality.

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Shop Proves a True Star of Productivity and Customer Care

In Hamilton, Ontario, just south of Toronto in the province’s industrial heart, North Star Technical Inc. has earned a sterling reputation for customer service since its founding in 1986 based on the solid foundation of its family-owned business. In a city filled with CNC machining and repair shops, this job shop has differentiated itself from the crowd with specialized areas of expertise and close customer relationships, all backed by advanced machine tool technology.

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