Taiwan-based Fair Friend Group (FFG) and Italy's Jobs have added muscle to their FFG Europe venture by giving the unit direct control over machine tool makers.
The Milan, Italy-based venture also said it expects to debut a number of centres jointly developed with FFG's Asian units at September's EMO machine tool show in Hanover, Germany.
FFG Europe produces milling machines for the aeronautic, aerospace, automotive, moulds & dies, energy and general mechanical sectors, with each of the four brands positioned differently to avoid product overlap. The Italian companies Jobs, Automazione-Sachman, Rambaudi and Sigma Technology form the nucleus of FFG Europe, which has four production plants in Italy. Prior to entering this venture, Jobs had purchased Sachmann and a majority stake in vertical-machine centre maker Sigma.
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On the other side of the deal, Taiwanese businessman Jimmy Chu, the head of FFG, purchased Rambaudi in 2010. Now, all four brands are part of the new company, of which Chu owns 60%. Luigi Maniglio, the chairman of FFG Europe, controls the remainder through the investment firm Alma s.r.l.
At EMO, the company's Jobs unit is expected to show its medium-sized milling centre Ever 7, with a mobile crossbeam for machining with 3/3+2/4/5 axes. The centre is said to feature high chip removal capacity, which is ensured by the crossbeam structure, as well as rapid acceleration and speeds of up to 40 m/min. The machine is equipped with the universal mechanically driven milling head Kosmo, particularly suitable for high removal rate operations, and with the T3K head with 27,000 rpm electrospindle for high-speed semi-finishing and finishing machining. This configuration is said to target applications in aerospace and mould- and die-making.