Last month,
Citizen Machinery UK Ltd held a special event at its Bushey headquarters to launch the third generation of its Cincom L20-LFV series of sliding-head lathes, which are considerably more productive and eco-friendier than its predecessor. Three of the four variants available to UK and Irish manufacturers were on show under power producing typical customer-type components, rather than just demonstration parts, which impressed visitors. Additionally, there was also a second-generation L20 model on show for comparison.
As it was not a conventional Open House, the gathering was smaller than normal, but nevertheless 60 visitors from 30 customer companies attended. Four orders were taken to the value of around £700,000, contributing to a very successful April for the machine tool supplier. Numerous other negotiations are ongoing as a direct result of the initiative, not least owing to the various offers on new and existing models at the event.
Unlike at Citizen Machinery’s customary three-day annual Open Houses, there were none of the usual two dozen supplier companies at the launch, except for Cobots Online, which was demonstrating collaborative robot (cobot) automation on a Miyano BNA-42SY5 fixed-head lathe. This year’s full Open House will run from 7-9 October at Citizen's turning centre of excellence in Brierley Hill. It will feature the launch of a new fixed-head lathe, the Miyano BNX-51MSY2LFV, a prototype of which was previewed at Bushey in April, along with other new models yet to be announced.