CNC West Oct Nov Web

CNC WEST October/November 2018 www.CNC-West.com 63 Fanuc America to Expand Headquarters with New Facility Fanuc America Corporation has announced plans to con- struct a new facility in Auburn Hills, MI, that will be used for engineering, product development, manufacturing and warehousing. “Robotics and automation are key drivers of manufacturing competitiveness,” said Mike Cicco, president and CEO, Fanuc America. “We are looking forward to ex- panding our facilities here in Oakland County to keep pace with the growing demand for automation.” Fanuc America’s North Campus is scheduled to open in the fall of 2019. Mitsui Seiki Marks 90th Year Mitsui Seiki, world-renowned for its ultra-precise ma- chine tools providing high volumetric accuracies, celebrates its 90th anniversary this fall, and one of the ways the company will mark it was with a champagne toast during IMTS 2018. “Looking back on our history, the very foundation of precision measurement – gage blocks – were among our first products,” said Robb Hudson, CEO of Mitsui Seiki USA, Inc. Indeed, in 1928, the company manufactured measuring devices, such as gage blocks and micrometers. By 1935, the company developed its first jig boring machine. It was the first in Japan, sparking the machine tool industry there. Industrialists referred to it as Japan’s first “mother” machine because other machine tool builders used it to make their critical precision components. Jig boring machines are often referred to as “mother” machines to this day. Flash ahead to 2018, and the company continues to design and build jig borers, jig grinders, 3-, 4- and 5-axis CNC vertical and hori- zontal machining centers – including hybrid variations – and internal and external thread grinders. Mr. Okuda, president of Mitsui Seiki Kogyo Co., Ltd. in Japan, looks upon this milestone anniversary as an op- portunity to focus on “internal reformation” to continue to raise quality, productivity and reduce lead times from the headquarters factory, located on the outskirts of Tokyo. He also has goals to expand into other markets, such as mold and prototype sectors. “It was the perfect time to have this significant milestone anniversary to celebrate,” continues Mr. Hudson. “Manufac- turing is abuzz with activity, and we have many opportunities to develop new and efficient machine tool solutions for our sophisticated customer base. At IMTS this year launched a new VMC that also finish grinds and we are also pursuing the Blue Arc™ technology in a significant and dedicated manner with GE. The way I look at it is we are positioning ourselves right now for the next 90 years.” Industry News INTERNAL GROOVING EXTERNAL GROOVING INTERNAL THREADING EXTERNAL THREADING INTERNAL FACE GROOVING EXTERNAL FACE GROOVING PROFILING BORING PARTING DOVETAIL FACE GROOVING SPECIAL TOOLING FORM TOOLING 888 - THINBIT • 888-THINFAX THINBIT.COM Made in the U.S.A. Since 1964 With over a million standard tools, we’ve got the “ings” covered.