Holroyd's US sales prospects receive major boost

GTG2 precision helical grinding

Holroyd's US sales prospects for its new GTG2 precision helical grinding machine have received a major boost with the decision by the Mitsubishi Gear Technology Center to add the new machine to its existing machine portfolio. This is a major departure for the Mitsubishi Gear Technology Center, which is a highly successful US business serving the automotive & engineering services industries. The company is a direct representative for Mitsubishi, not a distributor, and has never before sold machines from any other manufacturer.

Commenting upon the decision, Ian Shearing Vice President Sales for the Mitsubishi Gear Center said that: "Mitsubishi has a good reputation in North America for delivering gear hobbing, shaving and shaping machines of high quality and dependable performance.  The Holroyd GTG2 grinder is part of the missing piece of the puzzle, which will lead our product range into the "hard gear finishing" field. Combined with our presence and dedication to the gear market, we know that further success is just around the corner."

"The GTG2 is not a machine or technology that we currently represent," continued Mr Shearing, "and we believe that it offers the potential to increase our profit margins, by opening doors to a wider customer base i.e. high quality gear producers. None of the Mitsubishi machines that we sell currently are "hard gear finisher's". The GTG2 fits into  our product line in perfect synergy because of its niche market potential. Gear cutting in general can be considered a niche market but for sure the trend is toward finishing gear teeth after heat treatment, i.e. in their hardened state. The GTG2 fits this perfectly, but also to very high quality levels."

Asked about the challenges ahead for GTG2 sales Mr Shearing opined that: "The test is to sell the first machine into America. When this first step has been achieved then its reputation should be almost self -developing. How many machines per year are possible is difficult to determine, but if the economy stays at its current pace it should be possible to sell 4 to 6 machines per year."

"The decision by such a well-respected company as the Mitsubishi Gear Technology Center to adopt our new machine is a vindication of the GTG2 design, accuracy and product quality," said Paul Hannah, Sales Director of Holroyd. "Our design aim with the GTG2 was to produce the lowest cost, highest accuracy grinding machine for helical and worm gears in the world, and I am sure that we have succeeded. Although the GTG2 is designed to provide DIN 2 levels of accuracy, generally, it has exceeded this level under optimum operating conditions, producing its "best ground" performance with a tooth profile of DIN 1, considered by many to be pinnacle of grinding performance."

The GTG2 is an extremely versatile gear grinding centre, developed for one-off or batch production of high precision helical, spur and worm gears in sizes up to 350mm diameter and 160mm gear face width. The machine's exceptional performance is the result of a design synergy that combines a "patent- pending" machining method, with high levels of machine intelligence and onboard features such as automatic co-ordinate adjustment, in-cycle wheel dressing, integrated profile management and CMM.