Hardinge Machine Tools Ltd., has reported that its recently held 'Manufacturing Best Practice' Open House, on 9th, 10th and 11th of June 09, was a roaring success.

The event, held at Hardinge’s facility in Leicester, proved popular with precision manufacturers with over 40 different companies attending the event, and total visitor numbers approaching the one hundred mark.

The popularity of the Open House was also reflected in the number of new machine tool orders taken during the 3 days.

Said John McTernan, Hardinge’s European Sales, Marketing and Service Director: 'We took 7 orders from UK customers at the Open House and we expect another 8 orders, again from the UK, to be signed and sealed later this month. In addition to actual sales – we raised over 20 machine tool quotations and are also now actively following up a number of serious sales enquiries generated during the event.'

As well as UK customers attending the event, the Open House had a international flavour with representatives from Hardinge’s operations in Germany and Switzerland, plus a number of  European Agents from France, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic and Finland taking time out to see the latest range of new, advanced machines being demonstrated at the show.

Amongst the new machines making their debuts at the event were the Bridgeport GX 250 5-AX (5-axis machine); the GX 1600 (large capacity 3-axis VMC), and the Hardinge Super Precision Quest CHNC 42 (high-productivity lathe).

Continued John McTernan: 'Hardinge has re-positioned itself over the last 12 months. We are no longer in the commodity-end of the market, but instead are now totally-focused on delivering high-end, advanced technology and manufacturing solutions to customers.

'Our machine tool line-up at the Open House demonstrated the change in direction.'

In addition to the 13 different milling, turning and grinding machine tools on show, Hardinge also launched its new, high-performance DD3 (direct –drive) 5-AX rotary trunnion table, and its fast and easy-to-use FlexC Collet System at the Open House.

Both of which were extremely well received by visitors.

Other attractions at the Open House proved to be the Technology Seminar Programme and the innovative, extra-special promotions run over the 3 days.

The Technology Seminar Programme covering topical manufacturing issues (i.e Hard Turning; Aerospace and Medical component manufacture etc.), and all led by industry experts, were well attended and provided much food for thought.

The special promotions, not surprisingly had a positive impact, with all visitors being given tooling vouchers worth £1000.00 (redeemable with any machine tool purchase made before the end of 2009). And special prize draws, run over the 3 days, resulted in Matt Fazekas from Promach 3D (Derbyshire) winning £500 worth of tooling and Jason Cross of Glenborough Engineering (Leicestershire) winning a City Break for two.

Concluded John McTernan: 'We got the content, timing and publicity of the Open House spot-on.'

'The success of the Open House was also down to a great team effort – so a big thank-you goes out to all our staff and our technical partners who worked hard to deliver such a memorable event.'

www.hardinge.co.uk