Yamazaki Mazak has announced completion of the first construction phase of its new Inabe plant, in the Mie prefecture, Japan — and the start of assembly operations (
www.mazakeu.com).
The new plant has been opened to meet the increasing demand for large five-face machining centres and five-axis machine tools — as used by the aerospace, construction machinery and energy industries, for example. It is the sixth Mazak production facility in Japan.
Construction began in 2016, with the first phase completed this February, allowing the production of large machine tools to be transferred to Inabe from the Minokamo plant in the Gifu prefecture.
With the start of operations at the Inabe plant, Yamazaki Mazak’s overall production capacity in Japan has been increased by 20%.
The company says that the machine tool market is currently strong, and further increases in production are planned, with the new plant ensuring the company’s ability to respond more effectively to the requirements of the domestic and overseas markets.
The Inabe plant has a floor space of 33,000m
2 on a land area of 115,000m
2, and an investment of 16 billion yen was required to complete the first phase.
The reinforced-concrete floor is 1m thick to prevent vibration while adjusting and inspecting machines during assembly; and to eliminate any effects of changes in the external temperature, the factory is controlled to ±1°C.