Very large, high precision machining centres and flexible manufacturing systems, vertical turning lathes (VTLs) and grinding machines built by WALDRICH COBURG in Germany will be sold and serviced in the UK and Ireland by Geo Kingsbury Ltd under a sole agency agreement that takes effect from 1st January 2015.

WALDRICH COBURG has historically focused on building large, portal-type mills with up to five CNC axes designed for specific machining applications, although the company has more recently introduced smaller, standard portal machining centres.

The largest machines produced by the Bavarian company, which is located in Coburg, are over 20 metres in the X-axis and support 500 tonnes on the table. Customers are typically manufacturers in the marine, rail, power generation, defence, machine tool, printing and construction sectors.

Richard Kingsbury, managing director of Gosport-based Geo Kingsbury said, “The wide range of WALDRICH COBURG machining centres complements and completes our LPM (large prismatic machine) range, which we have developed over the past few years to include Zimmermann, Burkhardt + Weber and SHW. They are all top quality machines built in southern Germany.

“In the last quarter of 2014 we opened an office in Birmingham, headed by business development director, Chris Hewitson, specifically to promote our LPM range. He is assisted by senior applications engineer, Steve Burrows and from 1st January by a new member of staff, Ken Fryer, who has represented WALDRICH COBURG in the UK for many years.”

The portfolio of larger prismatic metalcutting equipment is being marketed alongside smaller-capacity Hermle machining centres. Index and Traub single- and multi-spindle CNC lathes continue to be the mainstay of Geo Kingsbury’s turning machine offering. However, the addition of WALDRICH COBURG’s large VTLs with milling capability will expand the turning centre range, while the new grinders will be a net addition to the programme.”