Hurco records a successful MACH 2024

While the total number of visitors to the Hurco stand at MACH this year was down on two years previously, the quality of enquiries for new machines and the volume of business concluded more than made up for the lower attendance.

Managing director David Waghorn commented, “We have become used to seeing attendees at the show increase over the past couple of decades and 2022 was post-pandemic, so people were simply glad to get out.

“Although we welcomed fewer people onto our stand this time, it was clear that those who did visit had been planning and budgeting carefully. The result was a much more successful show for us than two years ago.”

Hurco opted to take its largest ever stand at 300 square metres at this year’s exhibition, returning to the position it formerly occupied in hall 6, nearest to people arriving from Birmingham International station. The extra space offered the opportunity to run 11 Hurco machines as well as one Roeders machining centre throughout the show, all cutting metal.

This year’s focus was on 5-axis and automation. A Hurco ProCobot Profeeder assisted production of parts on a VM20i 3-axis VMC and an Erowa Robot Compact 80 was feeding a trunnion-type 5-axis model, the VMX30Ui.

The variety of 5-axis Hurco VMC options available was remarked upon by many. They ranged from the highly versatile VMX42SRTi with direct drives in the B and C axes, to the cantilever-design VC500i offering easy access for large components, to the economical C-frame VMX30Ui, and on to the simple addition of a Kitagawa or Nikken rotary-tilt table to a conventional 3-axis machine. The variety of configurations allows an optimal solution to be chosen to suit the parts to be cut.

Turning centres, the fastest-growing category in the Hurco portfolio, took centre stage. They were represented by a 2-axis TM6i, a 3-axis TM8Mi and a multi-axis TMX10MYSi with Y-axis, sub-spindle and a servo-turret with 12 driven tool stations. The latter range of models allows a greater number of more complex operations, including gear hobbing and polygon turning, to be performed on a turned part in a single handling.

Mr Waghorn added, “The final outcome from a MACH show is always difficult to assess. Machine tool technology increases in value year on year, which means people tend to consider investments ever more carefully, so it can be as much two years later that an enquiry results in a sale.

“However, based on orders in excess of £2 million taken on our stand, plus more than 200 quotations resulting from the show, Hurco will certainly be returning with a similar presence in 2026.”