As part of its continued investment in customer experience and knowledge sharing, metal-cutting company Sandvik Coromant has opened a new Sandvik Coromant Center in Mebane, North Carolina. In conjunction, the company has moved its U.S. headquarters to the same location.
With approximately 170 employees, the updated 167,000ft2 facility houses an existing production unit, the new tech center and corporate offices, all in one common location.
Mebane lies at the heart of all major aerospace and automotive customers within a 200-mile radius and is easily accessible from three nearby airports, which allows Sandvik Coromant to be close to customers and partners. In addition, Mebane is located near the Research Triangle near North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Sean Holt, president of Sales Area Americas for Sandvik Coromant, said, “With all departments present in Mebane, we can provide customers and partners with a fully integrated, state-of-the-art immersion into the latest technologies and machining applications. In addition, we anticipate additional synergies between the proximity of our production unit and the activity from our new Sandvik Coromant Center.”
Holt cited the great collaboration the center has built with local technical schools since the Mebane manufacturing location – which specializes in indexable milling, turning, and drilling tools and made-to-order tooling – opened in 1980. He sees an opportunity for expanding that collaboration with the engineering schools of the Research Triangle to bring in new talent.
“Keeping our workforce super strong is important to Sandvik Coromant,” Holt says.
The new Sandvik Coromant Center Mebane is a hub for training, R&D testing, customer projects, digital live machining (DLM) capabilities, and an opportunity for comprehensive customer and partner engagement with the overall Sandvik Coromant experience.
Sandvik Coromant Center Mebane allows customers and partners to fully interact with the latest technology and digital machining techniques, including Sandvik Coromant’s CoroPlus® tooling platform. Customers also can work together with Sandvik Coromant manufacturing specialists, development and process engineers, and CAM programmers to develop new ways of overcoming machining challenges.
In the virtual press conference announcing the opening, Holt emphasized the company is fully open for business in Mebane, open to customers, while observing proper health precautions.
Complete with a large auditorium, integrated showroom, and modern machine tools, the new Sandvik Coromant Center Mebane also features an ITAR aerospace project area. In addition, the DLM system can be used for broadcasting training and machining demonstrations, allowing for collaboration with others around the globe in real time.
Currently, there are 17 Sandvik Coromant Centers located across Europe, the Americas, and Asia. While each facility has a physical location, they have been built with digital adaptability in mind for virtual training and events.
The interconnectivity of the centers facilitates many opportunities for problem-solving. Sandvik Coromant Centers work together, along with industry partners across the globe, to deliver webinars and digital events that tackle some of the most pertinent manufacturing concerns, such as reducing downtime, best machining practices, and selecting the right tool for the job. The new Sandvik Coromant Center Mebane is part of this network.
Helen Blomqvist, Sandvik Coromant president said, “the U.S. is very important, a key market, like a home market.”
Other Sandvik Coromant Centers in the U.S. include Schaumburg, Illinois, as well as two Project and Training Sites in Gardena, California, and Brownsburg, Indiana. The vision for all Sandvik Coromant Centers, including the new Mebane location, is that they are permanent trade shows, where visitors will get the same immersive, state-of-the-art experience at all locations.