In advanced manufacturing, every investment decision in CNC machines has a direct impact on competitiveness. Today, the challenge is no longer just about increasing output, but about optimizing CNC machining, reducing shop floor space, and minimizing reliance on highly specialized labor.

In this context, Okuma introduces a solution aligned with this evolution: the MULTUS U1000 and U2000, multitasking CNC machining centers recognized with the Best 10 New Products Award 2025, one of the most prestigious awards in global industrial innovation. Beyond recognition, these machines represent a shift in how processes are integrated within a single high-precision CNC machining center.

Less Space, higher productivity per square foot

One of the main bottlenecks in manufacturing is not always capacity, but floor space. Integrating more processes without expanding infrastructure has become a priority for CNC machining operations.

The MULTUS U1000/U2000 stand out with a compact footprint within the category of industrial CNC machines, enabling:

This is not just a smaller machine—it’s a smarter way to maximize space in metal CNC machining processes.

Process integration: fewer setups, greater efficiency

In environments where cycle time is critical, reducing setups is essential.

With a standard 80-tool magazine, these machines allow consolidation of operations typically performed on:

This directly impacts:

In practical terms, this translates into a more efficient and controlled production process.

CNC precision for high-demand industries

Industries such as aerospace, medical, and automotive require high-precision CNC machines capable of handling complex geometries.

Enhanced indexing accuracy on the B and C axes enables the MULTUS series to deliver:

This positions these machines as an ideal solution for companies looking to scale their capabilities in advanced manufacturing.

Integrated and practical industrial automation

Automation is no longer optional in the industrial CNC machinery ecosystem. However, implementation within limited space remains a key challenge.

The flat-front design of the MULTUS machines facilitates integration with industrial robots, enabling:

This makes automation a natural evolution of the CNC production process, rather than a complex standalone project.

More than a CNC Machine: a strategic decision

Okuma’s recognition in 2025 confirms a clear trend: the evolution of computer numerical control (CNC) machines is focused on integration, automation, and operational efficiency.

Today, the conversation is no longer just about purchasing a CNC machine, but about how that technology transforms:

At HEMAQ, we support the industry through this transition by integrating solutions in CNC machining centers, CNC lathes, and high-performance CNC machinery.

How to Buy a CNC Machine starts with understanding that purchasing a new CNC machine tool is one of the most critical decisions in any manufacturing operation. The typical starting point is a comparison chart—travels, work envelope, spindle speeds, weight, price—but while this exercise is useful, it does not always tell the full story.

Based on HEMAQ’s experience since 1988, we have learned that the most successful purchasing decisions go beyond technical specifications and focus on Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)—in other words, the machine’s true impact throughout its entire service life.

Below, we share the key factors that make the difference between a “correct” purchase and a truly profitable investment.

1. Productivity: The Real Driver of Return on Investment

In many traditional analyses, productivity is assumed—but not always properly measured. A well-built, rigid, high-quality machine can generate significant gains in daily output.

We are talking about:

These factors directly impact the profitability of every single part produced—day after day—and often far outweigh the initial price difference between two machines.

2. Tooling Costs: A Silent but Critical Expense

Machine rigidity is a factor that should never be underestimated. It is widely proven that a machine with poor rigidity dramatically increases cutting tool consumption.

In certain materials—such as titanium, Inconel, and other difficult-to-machine alloys—a poor decision can result in accumulated tooling costs reaching up to four times the machine’s original purchase price over its lifetime.

We have seen customers make very smart decisions by selecting machines that, while requiring a higher upfront investment, deliver substantial and sustained savings in tooling. This is undoubtedly an analysis worth conducting from the outset.

3. Maintenance Costs: When the “Familiar” Becomes More Expensive

Another key aspect is reviewing the real maintenance history of the equipment currently running in your plant: spare parts, unplanned downtime, and rising operating costs.

In several cases, when comparing these ongoing expenses to the cost of acquiring a new machine, customers have been surprised to find that investing in new equipment is actually more economical than continuing to maintain aging assets. When the full picture is analyzed, the purchase stops being an expense and becomes an operational cost-saving strategy.

High-Impact Numbers That Don’t Appear in a Spec Sheet

Some of the most important variables never show up in a technical comparison chart, yet they play a decisive role in the success of the investment.

Key tools for a deeper evaluation include:

The importance of knowing how to buy a CNC machine

This type of data provides a far clearer and more reliable foundation for making an informed decision.

At HEMAQ, we are always available to support our customers at every stage of the evaluation and purchasing process. Our goal is to help you invest with confidence, long-term vision, and measurable results.

We hope these insights help you analyze your next investment with greater clarity and certainty.

Visit hemaq.com for more information.

Jingdiao VTA600: Precision and Speed Within Reach

In a landscape where precision and efficiency define competitiveness, the JingdiaoVTA600 High-Speed Machining Center stands out as a high-performance solution for shops aiming to move toward advanced manufacturing — without sacrificing space or budget.

Compact, rigid, and highly accurate

Featuring a bridge-type structure and a 24,000 RPM direct-drive spindle, the VTA600 provides exceptional rigidity for machining materials up to 52 HRC, achieving 10 µm accuracy and 0.1 µm Ra (4 RMS) surface finish.

Its compact design (2.3 × 2.3 × 2.5 m) makes it ideal for small production spaces demanding high precision.

Integrated intelligence: on-machine measurement + SurfMill

The VTA600 incorporates OMIM intelligent on-machine measurement, fully integrated with SurfMill CAD/CAM and the JD50 CNC controller.

This closed-loop ecosystem measures and corrects part deviations in real time, compensating for tool wear, misalignment, or thermal expansion, ensuring consistent precision without offline inspection.

“Jingdiao’s On-Machine Measurement is like having an expert operator — precise, tireless, and always ready.”

Automation-Ready

The VTA600 easily connects with Jingdiao’s FMS150 automation system, featuring RFID technology and capacity for up to 16 pallets.

It can also be configured with laser tool setters, touch probes, and a 5-axis rotary table for complex geometry machining.

Proven across industries

The VTA600 is already trusted in medical, electronics, and mold manufacturing sectors, producing components with micrometer-level tolerances and optical-grade finishes.

It’s the ideal choice for manufacturers seeking higher efficiency, improved surface quality, and stable accuracy in continuous production.

Advancing precision manufacturing in Mexico

HEMAQ continues to advance Mexico’s manufacturing industry by integrating smart machining solutions like the Jingdiao VTA600, combining precision, automation, and productivity to achieve world-class performance standards.

Tight tolerances on complex geometries

Large parts, such as stringers, structural beams or wing rails, must meet micron tolerances even on dimensions of several meters. Machines like Modig’s RigiMill MG Vertical Machining Center,
a 3-, 4- or 5-axis machine with large machining capabilities, are designed specifically for these scenarios. Thanks to its structural rigidity and gantry-type architecture, it offers repeatable accuracy over long paths, ideal for machining critical aircraft structural components.

Traceability and documentation

Modig’s machining centers can be integrated with real-time monitoring systems, production data collection and advanced sensing, meeting the quality and traceability standards required by aerospace OEMs such as Airbus, Boeing or Embraer.

Competitive advantages of investing in machinery for large parts

With equipment such as the RigiMill MT, manufacturers can offer machining services for wing spars, fuselage structures or structural components up to 20 meters, a capability highly valued by aerospace contractors, gaining access to new markets and higher value contracts.

By internalizing critical processes with Modig technology, manufacturers gain autonomy, which translates into less outsourcing and greater quality control. The HHV2, for example, allows complete aluminum profiles to be machined in a single pass, eliminating intermediate processes and reducing the margin for human error.

Modig also stands out for integrating automation, fast tool change, 5-axis heads and continuous material feed. This turns its centers into true compact production cells for medium and long series, increasing productivity levels thanks to its integrated technologies.

Companies with Modig technology are perceived as high-end suppliers, capable of meeting international quality standards. It is not for nothing that many suppliers specialized in aerospace materials and parts use their machines in AS9100-certified plants. And, although Modig is strongly focused on the aerospace sector, its solutions are perfectly applicable in industries such as defense, railway and power generation, allowing to diversify projects and maximize the return on investment.

Machining large parts in the aerospace industry is one of the most complex challenges in modern manufacturing. But it also represents one of the greatest opportunities for growth, innovation and differentiation. Investing in machinery like Modig’s, with specific solutions for advanced materials, high precision and automation, is investing in the future of industrial competitiveness. The market does not only reward technical capacity: it rewards strategic vision. Contact us and find out how we can help you achieve this vision.

Preventive maintenance is crucial to ensure the efficiency of your CNC equipment and that part production goals are met, and is vital to prolonging the life of your CNC lathe or machining center. Considering that everything that can fail will eventually fail, the only way to prevent costly failures and production downtime is intelligently scheduled preventive maintenance.

What are the advantages of preventive maintenance?

• Improve the efficiency of your equipment and keep its components in optimal condition.
• Increase the service life of your CNC machinery
• Prevent costly failures
• Increased safety for your operators
• Higher quality of your final product

Considering all these aspects, scheduled maintenance serves as a preventive strategy to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) of CNC equipment, because even though it adds up to short-term costs, it reduces potential expenses that could jeopardize the profitability of a piece of equipment or even a project as a whole.

TCO is defined as a tool that helps us evaluate the total costs (the sum of direct and indirect costs) associated with the purchase of CNC equipment or any other capital asset. This resource provides valuable information about the purchase cost, as well as usage and maintenance costs of the machinery.

To properly calculate the TCO of new CNC equipment, it is necessary to add “hidden” costs that are often overlooked, such as the training of your support staff and technicians. Fortunately, this “expense” can be transformed into a preventive investment by approaching experts who not only provide comprehensive solutions, but can also foresee future failures. 

Other expenses to consider are operating costs and electrical and cooling consumption, adjustments to your plant infrastructure, production downtime (planned or unplanned) and possible incidents such as defective parts.

CNC Financing

In addition, let’s remember that the basic principle for the realistic calculation of the cost of ownership of a CNC equipment is based on the sum of those expenses necessary to guarantee its correct operation during the useful life of the machinery. This measure considers both one-time payment values and those expenses recurring with production, such as consumables, tooling, energy and even land use per square meter in relation to its final production.

With all these expenses in mind, having a reliable maintenance service provider with high quality standards becomes a necessity, that is, a key player to have success and profitability in your projects. Do not hesitate to contact our support team, we have at your disposal plans of service hours with no expiration date and great versatility.

Following the 2020 pandemic, the nearshoring boom and the growing wave of manufacturing in Mexico, the metal-mechanic industry in Mexico has received large investments from abroad; an example of this was the sustained growth that began since 2021 with an investment of US$4.8 million, which represented a growth of 36.1 % over the previous year.

Likewise, according to data from INEGI’s “Directorio En México Estadístico Nacional de Unidades Económicas” (Directory In Mexico National Statistical Directory of Economic Units or DENUE), in 2023 there were 2,800 companies dedicated to the manufacture of parts for machinery and equipment, as well as almost 10 thousand manufacturers of metal parts and screws, which undoubtedly require skilled labor in the operation of machinery such as lathes, milling machines and CNC Machining Centers.

This panorama leads us to a clear conclusion: the need to keep our human talent trained and in constant professional growth, not only to retain manpower, but also to favor a work environment where each employee can find his or her maximum potential. In response to this is that our Engineering department offers specialized courses for CNC operation and programming, some of them are:

• Operation and programming from basic to advanced level for Machining Centers, Lathes and Grinding Machines.

• Okuma’s Advanced One Touch-Interactive Graphics Function (AOT-IGT) interactive programming.

• Programming and calibration of measuring systems

• Bar feeder programming and alignment

• Pivot calibration on 5-axis machines

• (3+1) / (3+2) axis operation and programming

• Best practices workshop for CNC equipment

CNC FOR YOU

Do not hesitate to contact our engineers to provide you with the training or course best suited to your needs.

That is why it is expected that in the next 5 years the mold and die industry in Mexico will double its current size, from just over 300 specialized companies according to statistics from the Clúster de Herramentales de Nuevo León (Nuevo León Tooling Cluster).  This growth would mean a market value of more than 500 million dollars thanks, among other factors, to the nearshoring phenomenon and the transition from traditional to electric mobility.

Jorge Ayala, representative of the Asociación Mexicana de Manufactura de Moldes y Troqueles (Mexican Association of Mold and Die Manufacturing or AMMMT), explained during Meximold 2023, that 400 new companies are expected to be installed in the Bajío region of the country, all of them with a considerable demand for molds for the automotive industry.

The speed and power of the dragon

Now that the conditions for growth are clear, we will have to think about how to take advantage of this trend and benefit from this opportunity to increase the machining capabilities of our workshops. At HEMAQ, we are counting on a brand of CNC machine tools specialized in molds and dies. Jingdiao Group offers solutions for 3 and 5-axis machining with great versatility and power, in addition to the ability to machine molds and dies with microscopic levels of precision. 

The phenomenon of Asian and European companies relocating to North America is becoming more and more familiar, as demand has increased as consumers are increasingly open to the possibility of switching from a combustion car to a hybrid or electric car thanks, to a large extent, to the decrease in their prices.

Molds and Dies

This creates the perfect scenario to join the production of high-precision molds and dies, as these are the components with the highest projected demand in the next 5 years. Consider, in addition, that according to the AMMMT’s own analysis, the market for these parts has “fostered the country’s integration into global supply chains, as numerous international companies use parts manufactured in Mexico to produce components that are then assembled into products that go to different parts of the world.”

*With information from:

González, Lilia. (August 6th 2023). Industria de moldes y troqueles duplicará su crecimiento por nearshoring y sector automotriz. El Economista. Recovered from: https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/empresas/Industria-de-moldes-y-troqueles-duplicara-su-crecimiento-por-nearshoring-y-sector-automotriz-20230816-0046.html

Hernández, Lizete. (February 1th 2023). Moldes, troqueles y herramentales, base de la manufactura. Mexico Industry. Recovered from: https://mexicoindustry.com/noticia/moldes-troqueles-y-herramentales-base-de-la-manufactura

Okuma has stated that among its energy goals for 2050 is to achieve carbon neutrality for all its plants and to offer its customers an accurate and consistent machining process with less energy consumption. You too can achieve new green goals and savings in energy and accessories through Okuma’s green technology.

THREE LEADING POINTS FOR OKUMA’S GREEN TECHNOLOGY

1.  Reduce energy during machining.
2.  Stopping unnecessary equipment proactively.
3. Shortening cycle times.

Machine tools not only consume energy during use, but also during set-up and standby times. Through unique innovations, Okuma has succeeded in significantly reducing carbon dioxide emissions during production. In addition, machining accuracy is not affected, and lower energy consumption and shorter cycle times contribute to increased productivity.

OKUMA ECO SUITE PLUS SYSTEM

With the OSP control developed by Okuma, the operating status and carbon dioxide emissions can be recorded and analyzed with pinpoint accuracy. The accompanying visualization and integrated energy-saving functions support the energy reduction.

A large part of the energy consumption is accounted by all the additional devices of a machine tool. Thanks to ECO Suite Plus, the machine automatically detects the operating status of all components of the machine and puts them into an energy-saving idling mode according to need.

With the ECO Suite Plus, other peripheral devices, such as chip conveyors or extractors, can also be optionally adapted to the operation. Operation can be fine-tuned even more, as many carbon dioxide emissions as possible are reduced and energy consumption is lowered.

The highly efficient hydraulic unit significantly reduces power consumption. This means that, with a conventional hydraulic unit, the MB-4000H requires a power consumption of 840 W. With the optional ECO hydraulics, only 260 W are needed at 25 min-1.

Contact our specialized sales executives to find out how you too can achieve your green and savings goals for 2024.

In the highly competitive world of cnc manufacturing, efficiency and profitability are key elements for long-term success. Two terms that play a key role in this scenario are Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI). Understanding the relationship between these two concepts is essential to making informed and strategic decisions in your cnc manufacturing projects.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a complete evaluation of all costs associated with the acquisition, implementation and maintenance of a cnc manufacturing project. It is important to consider that the real value of a CNC equipment goes beyond its price, since this means only 15% of the TCO, while the remaining 85% comes from factors as diverse as consumable tools, maintenance, shutdowns and rejected parts, among others.

In other words, TCO goes beyond the initial purchase costs and includes aspects such as the cost of operation, upgrades and, eventually, expenses associated with the end of life of the machinery. It is for these reasons that it is vital to acquire equipment designed to complete and even exceed the average lifetimes of CNC equipment.

Return on Investment (ROI), on the other hand, measures the benefits obtained in relation to the cost of the initial investment. It is a crucial metric for evaluating the profitability of a project in cnc manufacturing. It is calculated by dividing the net benefits by the initial investment costs and is commonly expressed as a percentage. A positive ROI indicates that the investment has been profitable.rsión ha sido rentable.

Strategic interconnection

The relationship between TCO and ROI lies in the ability to optimize costs over the life cycle of a project while maximizing benefits. Here are some key considerations:

Initial investment vs. long-term savings

Making decisions based solely on the initial investment, i.e., the cost of the equipment, can be misleading, as cheaper equipment can be costly in terms of operation and maintenance. A balanced approach considers how the initial investment will impact operating costs over time and thus affect ROI. The solution is simple: consider the initial investment and operating expenses over the lifetime of the equipment, so it will be easier to visualize how higher structural integrity equipment will bring greater benefits and better savings.

Operational efficiency and maintenance

Investing in technologies and equipment that improve the operational efficiency of your project can reduce long-term operating costs. Adopting solutions that minimize downtime, facilitate predictive maintenance and extend equipment life can have a significant impact on TCO and ultimately ROI.

Adaptability to future projects

Flexibility and the ability to adapt to changes in the manufacturing sector are crucial. Investing in technologies and systems that can evolve with market needs and rapid technological innovations can protect the initial investment and improve long-term ROI. Remember, the relationship between TCO and ROI in manufacturing projects is a strategic trade-off. Optimizing costs over time and maximizing profits are essential to ensure your success in the world of cnc manufacturing.

Okuma equipment has a huge advantage, as it has an average record time of 90 months (7.5 years) between failures, which translates into great savings and security in your investment. Use Okuma’s digital tools and calculate the ROI of your operation here: https://www.okuma.com/roi-calculator

In cnc manufacturing, making informed decisions that consider both total costs and potential returns ensures a sound and sustainable investment in the dynamic environment of modern cnc manufacturing. At the end of the day, the path to profitability involves a thorough understanding of how each decision will affect both costs and benefits throughout the life cycle of your project.