25 Years of American-Made Value, Uncompromising Quality, Worldwide Service

Manufacturing Engineering, Dec 2008

In 1983, Gene Haas founded Haas Automation Inc. to manufacture the industry's first fully automatic programmable collet indexer. Designed to increase production in Gene's own machine shop, the Haas 5C indexer was an instant success, and over the next four years, the product line expanded to include a wide selection of fully programmable rotary tables, indexers, and machine tool accessories.

In 1988, Haas Automation achieved another industry milestone by introducing the first American-built vertical machining center (VMC) to sell for less than $50,000-a price unheard of at the time. The Haas VF-I sold for a published price of $49,900, and quickly became the industry benchmark for affordable CNC technology.

Today, 25 years later, the Haas VF-I still sells for less than $50,000, and Haas Automation is the world's leading manufacturer of CNC machine took-building, selling and shipping more machines per month than any other single builder in the western world. All Haas products are manufactured in the company's 1million-square-foot facility in Southern California, and distributed through a worldwide network of more than 140 Haas Factory Outlets (HFOs). Every HFO has complete showroom facilities, factory-trained service personal, extensive spare-parts inventories, and fully stocked service vehicles to provide the industry's best service and support.

From the start, Haas Automation has provided reliable, affordable machine tool solutions-at published prices-to job shops and contract manufacturers around the world, relying on volume sales rather than per-unit profits to build the company. Extensive use of lean manufacturing methods and just-in-time production practices allows Haas Automation to produce high-precision CNC products while maintaining exacting quality and value-based pricing.

By year's end, more than 95,000 Haas CNC machines and 55,000 Haas rotary products will be in use around the world. The company will build more than 14,000 machines in 2008, with around 60% of them going to international markets.

Contact: Haas Automation Inc., 2800 Sturgis Road, Oxnard, CA 93030; ToU Free: 800-331-6746; Ph: 805278-1800; Fax: 805-278-8540; e-mail: haascnc@haas cnc.com; Web: www.Haas CNC.com; or Circle 191.