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Product category: Manufacturing orders, contracts, financial reports
News Release from: Mike Page - editor's feature articles
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 18 May 2007

Orders rise for CNC production lathes

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German manufacturers of CNC single spindle and multi-spindle lathes, Traub and Index-Werke, have reported orders up 16% in 2006, reports Mike Page, and the trend continues.

During 2006, Index-Werke and Co KG Hahn and Tesky Group reported orders up 16% for its Traub and Index products Traub builds single-spindle CNC multi-axis bar and chucking lathes

Index builds modular single spindle and multi-spindle lathes.

Meeting at the recent 50th Anniversary celebrations of UK agent, Geo Kingsbury machine Tools, Gosport, the new president and CEO of Index-Werke, Dr Juergen Dambrowski, told manufacturingtalk that sales of index and Traub had risen 16% during 2006 to EUR 425 million.

Both companies had also seen orders order increases of around 30%.

Some 45% of production is exported.

The trend is continuing in 2007, Dambrowski expects some 4-5% growth.

Order intake and sales were up again in first quarter of 2007 and he said, "It looks like being another good year.

In 2006 the German market and overseas demand was up, I hope it will go further than this." He said that the biggest problem facing both companies is that of ramping up production.

All manufacturing is done in Germany, but the Group is looking at global production.

Dambrowski said that the Brazilian plant has the largest market share in South America.

One of the CNC lathes built there, the MC400, is being exported increasingly to Europe.

In China, Index has a joint venture with Dah Lian, where a universal CNC lathe (single spindle with one turret) is being built for the Chinese market.

More investment is planned in Brazil and China.

In Germany investment will go into metal cutting and expansion of assembly plants and a process is underway to identify those machine parts more suitable for sourcing outside.

Traub is one of very few CNC production lathe builders offering a twin-spindle (main spindle and opposing spindle) CNC lathe with four turrets - offering 80 tools, static and dynamic.

Users wanting to produce complex components in one set-up now have the opportunity to make use of up to four disc-type turrets carrying up to 80 static and rotary tools.

* Looking ahead to EMO - for the coming EMO exhibition (Hannover, Germany, September 17-22, 2007), Index Group will be showing further CNC single spindle lathe developments.

Visitors should also take note of CNC six-spindle automatic lathe developments.

For example there is now a 'lean', lower-cost version of the 22mm bar MSC22c CNC six-spindle automatic with a simplified tool slide arrangement.

Or there is the more complex version of the MSC22C, which can have two end-working pick-up attachments to pick up a part and process it through a number of fixed and rotational tools.

Two different jobs can be run on this machine simultaneously.

Also, the slides are not dedicated to ID or OD turning (visit Geo Kingsbury stories on Manufacturingtalk for more details on these machines).

Mike Page - editor's feature articles: contact details and other news
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