Changes at Dugard in 2019

Paul from MTD stopped in at our Southern Manufacturing stand and asked Eric a few questions about what’s in store for us in 2019

As the video shows, there are plenty of changes afoot!  One of those is the new addition to the Dugard sales team, Colin Thomson.  Colin’s been brought on board to look after the Hanwha range of sliding head lathes that we took over last year.  We’re sure Colin’s going to be a valuable asset to the team as he’s got such a lot of expertise and experience selling sliding head machinery.  Hanwha are the 3rd largest sliding head manufacturer in the world but so far in the UK they’ve been relatively unknown, with Colin on the team we’re planning on boosting the Hanwha profile throughout the UK sliding head market.  They’ve got a lot of great qualities, in the video Eric points out machine power, heavy milling and turning capabilities and their aptitude for harder materials.

Of course Hanwha also supply our new range of collaborative robots (cobots) that we’ve been showing off since August last year.  Automation is definitely an area we’re receiving a lot more interest in and the diversity available with a cobot is a primary factor in that interest.  While our traditional Dugard customers are more likely to use a cobot in conjunction with a machine for pick and place and machine handling but they’re capable of so much more.  For machine tool customers we’ve got packages now to automate VMCs and lathes, including automatic door opening and robot interface.  Eric points out “the beauty of this robot is that it can be moved in front of the machine and then when you want to use it as a regular machine then you move the robot away, whereas in the past robots have been seen as a complete package that’s integrated to the machine and can’t be changed” making a truly versatile addition to your production process (and team!).

Yet another talking point for Eric at Southern Manufacturing has been the new agency signing for Kitamura, a Japanese brand, they add to our company policy for high end machinery.  Interestingly, automation is also a very big part of their product range with multi pallet and material handling systems being a huge part of their offering.  The Kitamura range are the exact type of high specification machinery we’ve been looking to add to the Dugard stable for a while.  High accuracy and speed vertical, horizontal and 5 axis machining centres, Kitamura systems offer savings on set-up time, manpower and tooling costs.

If you want any more information on Hanwha sliding head lathes, cobots or Kitamura machining centres just call 01273 732286 or email [email protected]