“I’m always skeptical of new machines but the Hurco has impressed…. I anticipate buying several more in coming years” – James Marzilli, Marzilli Machine Company
Marzilli Machine Company, a precision CNC machine, OEM, and Parts Supplier based in Fall River, MA has experienced incredible growth over the past 5 years. Owner, James Marzilli, started the company in 2011 with just one machine and it has already increased tenfold with the company now running 14 machines, with 11 employees on 2 shifts just to keep up. To experience this type of growth a company must have future thinking leadership, which is exactly how Marzilli operates. As a contract manufacturer for many commercial customers as well as medical, aerospace, and military contracts James recognized early that there was a huge demand for quality machine shops and that his company had to be positioned properly to go after every job. One way they did this was by getting ISO 9001 certified in record time, with a push to get ISO 9100 certification by the end of 2017. James saw that not having these certifications would severely limit the work he could get so he made it a priority and pushed to get it done quickly. This has allowed them to now go after jobs on a national level.
Recently Marzilli has seen that having 5 axis capabilities is almost as important as having ISO certifications. Many large companies are using 5 axis as a filter to weed out companies who are not taking quality as seriously as they should. Large OEMs are calling to ask what 5 axis capabilities are available and companies with nothing to offer aren’t getting the opportunity to bid on work. Not wanting to lose out on these jobs James began looking at various 5 axis equipment 2 years ago at the Eastec show, saw it as the path towards the future, and decided to do more research.
A visit to a customer’s shop opened Marzilli’s eyes to the speed difference a 5 axis machine could offer. This shop showed them that they could make the same part using a 5 axis machine with 2 operations instead of a 2 axis machine with 4 operations and reduce the part time by 75%. In addition reducing the amount of handling eliminated the chance of mismatch. It was clear that owning a 5 axis machine would save so much time and money that it was a requirement to stay competitive.
As a shop with several g-code based machines Marzilli intended to purchase a similar 5 axis unit as well until a friend recommended that he take a look at what Hurco had to offer. The big selling point, “Hurco will have you making chips within a few days, the g-code unit requires everything be done with CAD/CAM so it’ll be months before you start making parts.” After a demo of the Hurco James recognized that the conversational programming would be far easier to get started with. His experience with running ProtoTRAK machines set him up perfectly to get started with the Hurco. All he needed was to learn how to transform planes, which was completed with a short amount of training from the Hurco Certified Technician offered through Brooks Associates, and he was up and running.
James describes himself as, “a harsh critic of equipment because it’s a large expense for a small company”. He stated that he’s, “always skeptical of new machines but the Hurco has impressed. It’s fast and rigid with an easy to use controller. I anticipate buying several more in coming years, with 3 of these on your floor you could make a lot of money.” They’ve been extremely impressed with the ease of the dynamic high speed milling as well as the NC Merge option. Using the NC Merge has allowed them to take any program from another machine and run it on the Hurco with no problems. While other machines he looked at said they could do it, they didn’t live up to the hype the way that Hurco did. Just a few weeks after this machine landed on their floor it started making them money.
It’s difficult to see how companies are going to survive without this capability when they start quoting against others that can get the work done faster and cheaper. James warns that it’s become clear to him that not having 5 axis in the future will eliminate a lot of potential customers. Marzilli Machine Company intends to continue to be at the forefront of technology for machine shops and the Hurco 5 Axis is helping them do that.