Chicago, Illinois, October 24, 2006 – Effective July 1, 2006, Mori Seiki launched the Machining Technology Laboratory (MTL), a new business entity dedicated to enhancing manufacturers’ overall machining processes. Through both partnerships with other industry leaders and unilateral internal development, MTL will develop new technologies beyond the scope of machine tool design, providing performance improvements in areas such as cutting tools and workholding.

Traditionally, machine tool builders have focused solely on optimizing machine performance, taking minimal steps to optimize the whole of the manufacturing process. MTL represents a significant shift away from this trend. Through this new entity, a machine tool builder will be directly applying its valuable expertise to addressing performance issues outside of the actual machine design.

“The establishment of MTL represents a new and more thorough approach to improving customers’ productivity and profitability,” says Greg Hyatt, Chief Technical Officer at Mori Seiki MTL. “Traditionally, the role of machine tool builders has been limited to improving the technology found within the machine itself. We are taking that a step further and working to develop tools that will help manufacturers fully capitalize on their machines’ potential.”

MTL has already assumed ownership of several projects previously in development by Mori Seiki, multiple of which have patents pending. Four of these innovations will be featured at IMTS 2006 in September.

Among the current projects, the first is a balancer that allows rebalancing of the chuck on a lathe as the balance of the workpiece being machined changes. In the past, multi-task machining applications avoided inaccuracy resulting from imbalance by lowering speeds of rotation as milling operations removed material from the workpiece. With this new technology, rebalancing will occur throughout the process, eliminating the need to choose between speed and quality. Developed through a partnership with Lord Corporation, the new balancer will also provide value to those working castings and forgings, where the distribution of mass varies from one workpiece to the next.

Mori Seiki produces extremely reliable machine tools and distributes worldwide. The U.S. headquarters is in Chicago with offices in Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Dallas, Detroit, Los Angeles, and New Jersey. For more about Mori Seiki and the products in the Mori Seiki line, visit www.moriseiki.com or call (847) 593-5400.