Successful Open House for repositioned Hardinge

The event, held at Hardinge's facility in Leicester, proved popular with precision manufacturers, with over 40 different companies attending the event, and total visitor numbers approaching the one hundred mark. The popularity of the Open House was also reflected in the number of new machine tool orders taken during the three days. "We took seven orders from UK customers at the Open House and we expect another eight orders, again from the UK, to be signed and sealed later this month," said John McTernan, Hardinge's European sales, marketing and service director. "In addition to actual sales, we raised over 20 machine tool quotations and are also now actively following up a number of 'serious' sales enquiries generated during the event." As well as UK customers attending the event, the Open House had a international flavour with representatives from Hardinge's operations in Germany and Switzerland, plus a number of European agents from France, Italy, Turkey, Poland, Czech Republic and Finland taking time out to see the latest range of new, advanced machines being demonstrated at the show. Amongst the new machines making their debuts at the event were the Bridgeport GX 250 5-AX (5-axis machine); the GX 1600 (large capacity 3-axis VMC), and the Hardinge Super Precision Quest CHNC 42 (high-productivity lathe). "Hardinge has re-positioned itself over the last 12 months," underlined Mr McTernan. " We are no longer in the commodity-end of the market, but instead are now totally-focused on delivering high-end, advanced technology and manufacturing solutions to customers. Our machine tool line-up at the Open House demonstrated the change in direction." In addition to the 13 different milling, turning and grinding machine tools on show, Hardinge also launched its new, high-performance DD3 (direct –drive) 5-AX rotary trunnion table, and its fast and easy-to-use FlexC Collet System at the Open House. The event's related special promotions had a positive impact, with all visitors being given tooling vouchers worth £1000.00 (redeemable with any machine tool purchase made before the end of 2009). And special prize draws, run over the three days, resulted in Matt Fazekas from Promach 3D (Derbyshire) winning £500 worth of tooling, and Jason Cross of Glenborough Engineering (Leicestershire) winning a City Break for two. Pictured: Bridgeport GX 250 5-AX