I visited Fadal's website for the first time in quite a while and was surprised by some of what I saw.
First surprise - another ownership change. Does the conventional wisdom say this is good or bad? Looks like the change is fairly recent, as the website seems to be a mish-mash of old and new. I have been personally involved in three corporate buyouts and the results were ugly every time.
Second surprise - all the vmc's have box ways now. What's up with that? I had thought that ball/roller linear ways were taking over for light-duty and "value" machines. Has there been some kind of technology advance making box ways better/faster/cheaper or something?
Third surprise - lots of Fanuc controls. Optional on most and standard on some, like those FX series machines. I have read lots of horror stories on this and other forums about that 104/d control. Could this mean that the company has decided to transition out of the control part of the business so they can focus more on the iron?
I am going to be making a buying decision in the next six months and would like to know what veterans of the industry think of all this.
Cheers,
Keith