MACH 2016 The first prize of a new fully specified Hardinge GS150 horizontal turning centre — on offer from the Engineering Technology Group, Southam (www.engtechgroup.com) in its MACH 2016 VIP Prize Draw — has been won by Hartlepool-based JJ Hardy & Sons (www.jjhardy.co.uk), a component manufacturer with extensive CNC machine shops.

With a history dating back to 1856, JJ Hardy specialises in the manufacture of precision-engineered parts for the rail, oil and gas and energy sectors; the company is also well known for its use of reverse-engineering techniques.
In its build-up to the MACH exhibition, ETG offered members of its VIP Club a chance to win the Hardinge CNC lathe; there were also four runners-up prizes.

As well as the machine being delivered in a ready-to-run state, ETG engineers will also commission it in JJ Hardy’s factory. Moreover, the GS150 will be supplied complete with a Hydrafeed MV65 bar feeder (to provide an unmanned machining capability), a Filtermist oil-mist collector and filter unit, OpenMind CAD/CAM software, CIMCO machine-monitoring software, WNT VDI adaptors and general-purpose turning tools, a high-pressure coolant system supplied by Pumps & Equipment, and a first fill of coolant (courtesy of Blazer).

ETG group managing director Martin Doyle said: “As you would expect, the draw generated a lot of interest prior to the exhibition and during it. We chose the prizes carefully, so that the winners had the opportunity to expand their manufacturing operations either with enhanced capacity from the lathe or by increasing productivity with advanced work-holding.”