It was 20 years ago last month that XYZ Machine Tools Ltd
(www.xyzmachinetools.com) held the UK launch of ProtoTrak, a two-axis CNC system that was developed in the USA in the late 1980s by Southwestern Industries and broke new ground with its simplicity of use. The system allowed machinists with no prior knowledge of CNC to set up and program lathes and milling machines after just a single day’s training.
To date, some 45,000 ProtoTrak units have been installed in American job shops and 14,000 in UK machine shops, but the story in the UK could have been somewhat different.
When seeking European distributors, the company approached XYZ managing director Nigel Atherton, who says: “Being so far away, we were reluctant to drag someone over the water when we probably had no interest, but we eventually agreed to a meeting based on a demonstration that we were told would take no longer than one hour.
"However, it took just 10min for us to realise that we should have checked out this CNC system earlier, as we immediately saw the potential for it to take our turret mills and bed mills to a whole new level. ProtoTrak has proved to be so right for us that we have never looked back.
“The system has moved with the times, but it still retains the original objective of being simple to program. The latest units can now accept DXF drawings, ISO/G code programs and Parasolid models. Moreover, the SLX and SMX controls will link to CADCAM and SolidWorks systems.”