Frankfurt am Main, 1 February 2010. - 16 metres long, 11 metres high, 10 metres wide, weighing 250 tons, this is the largest machine ever exhibited at a METAV in Düsseldorf. Twelve heavy-duty trucks are bringing the VTC 50/60E, a vertical lathe, from Rotterdam to its destination in Siegen, and will be making a stop-over at METAV 2010 in Düsseldorf. The machine has been built by a company called Hankook Machine Tools in Changwon, Korea, who specialise in high-performance lathes

"It's the first time we've sold a machine of this size in Europe", explains Hee Jin Eun, Managing Director of the German sales company in Hamburg. "We are using METAV 2010 as a superlative platform to showcase this reference machine for our customers in Europe." The machine, she continued, excels in terms of outstanding capabilities for machining circularly symmetrical parts.

These advantages are also crucial for the machine's purchaser, a company called Kiel Flanschen GmbH in Siegen, Germany. It has built a new production hall specially for this machine. The family firm manufactures connecting elements for pipes up to a size of 4,300 mm, required by mechanical engineering companies, for example, for wind power installations or in the petrochemical industry. "By purchasing this machine, we aim to advance into new areas of manufacture", says Dirk Breyer, the firm's third-generation Managing Director. The plan is to use the vertical lathe to machine even larger turned parts, tanks, welded constructions and other objects. The workpieces can then have diameters of 6,000 mm, a machining height of 2,500 mm and a weight of 50 tons. In a single operation, the new machine can turn, mill, screw-cut and create horizontal boreholes.

"With this investment, we're well equipped for the time following the economic crisis", says a confident Breyer. He, too, is using the METAV to showcase the performance capabilities of his new machine to multitudinous trade visitors on the stand of Hankook Machine Tools (Hall15, G06).

METAV 2010 in Düsseldorf

METAV 2010 will be held in Düsseldorf from 23 to 27 February. In the even-numbered years it has firmly established itself as one of the premier technological shop-windows for the entire production technology and automation sectors in Germany for producers and customers from all over Europe. 680 exhibitors from 26 different countries will be showcasing their new products and services for production companies on a net exhibition area of around 32,000 m². The METAV showcases the entire spectrum of production technology. The principal focuses are on machine tools, production systems, high-precision tools, automated material flow, computer technology, industrial electronics and accessories. The METAV's visitor target group includes all major sectors of industry, particularly machine and plant construction, the automotive industry and its component suppliers, aerospace, the electrical engineering industry, plus the metalworking, medical technology and craft sectors. For these customer groupings, numerous supporting events will at METAV 2010 be highlighting topical issues from the field of production technology.