XYZ Machine Tools celebrates 20 years of ProtoTRAK in the UK

The control broke new ground, helping machinists with no prior knowledge of CNC to create programs for lathes and milling machines – an operator could program a part after one day. Developed in the USA in the late 80s by Southwestern Industries, some 45,000 ProtoTRAK units have been installed in American job shops and over 14,000 in UK machine shops. After much prompting and reluctantly agreeing to a meeting in the UK with a representative from Belgium, a demonstration that would last no longer than one hour was agreed. "We didn't need an hour! Based on our CNC experience, it took just 10 minutes to realise we should have checked out this CNC earlier, as we immediately saw the potential to take our brand of turret and bed mills into a totally different ballpark. Indeed, it was so right for us that we have never looked back," XYZ managing director Nigel Atherton recalls. Today, protoTRAK is available in three levels: EMX as a simple entry level 2-axis milling with up to 4-axis DRO display as an option: ProtoTRAK SMX, a 2- or 3-axis CNC, having a host of canned cycles and features, and 3D machining support: and ProtoTRAK SLX that offers manual or full CNC of a lathe, with a host of canned cycles. "The ProtoTRAK concept may be 20 years old, but has maintained its simplicity of use with lots of added functionality that has clearly separated XYZ from would-be competitive machine tool products," Mr Atherton stresses.