In mid-June, Soraluce held its highly anticipated Soraluce Summit 2023 event at its production sites in Bergara, Spain. The event provided an exclusive opportunity for customers to gain insight into Soraluce's impeccable machine building process. Alongside the debut of the new Performance Line machine series, attendees were treated to a firsthand view of the brand new assembly plant and were dazzled by an array of impressive projects and demos. "In recent years, demand for our milling, turning, boring and multitasking machines has increased significantly. There are now about 3,600 machines installed globally and the customer base is growing steadily," says Thilo Borbonus, managing director of Bimatec Soraluce. He says this has everything to do with the increasing need for large workpieces with high accuracy. The aerospace, energy, mould-making and general mechanical engineering industries, among others, are seeing larger and larger parts and constructions, with increasing accuracy requirements. Soraluce's machine tools are developed to meet exactly these needs. Borbonus: "Twenty years ago, we were of the opinion that machines would not get any larger than 20 metres. Today, we are not surprised by an X axis of 64 metres a Y axis of 8 m and customers wanting to machine workpieces with a mass of 700 tonnes. To meet the demand for this kind of machinery, the factory obviously has to grow with it." To meet the increasing demand for large machine tools, Soraluce has invested in expanding its production capacity. A completely new assembly plant was recently opened in Bergara. The new assembly hall has a floor area of over 2,500 m2, bringing the total floor area of the various factories to 30,000 m2. Needless to say, the new factory was designed based on sustainable criteria. Thus, the new factory is also equipped with solar panels. In total, Soraluce generates about 30% of its energy needs itself.
