520 Machinery: Exclusive Distributor of Tornos Machines in Northern Illinois and All of Indiana

520 Machine Sales, LLC, is now the exclusive northern Illinois and northwest Indiana distributor of Tornos, a maker of high-precision Swiss-style machines.

Tornos is the leading manufacturer of high-end technology and has been supplying micro-technology production equipment to the watch-making industry since 1880. Making machines with the precision of a fine Swiss watch, Tornos specializes in the manufacturing of machines designed to produce parts requiring extreme accuracy and quality.

“Tornos is a company that develops, manufactures and sells single-spindle and multi-spindle automatic turning machines and machining centers for small parts, as well as their associated products and services and now 520 Machinery will be the exclusive distributor,” said John Schneider, owner/sales specialist at Elk Grove Village-based 520 Machinery Sales. “It is a major addition to 520 Machinery. It is with great pride we welcome being the exclusive distributor.”

Tornos’ main markets are OEMs and subcontractors producing parts for the automotive, medical, electronics and micro-technology sectors.

“Basically, Tornos specializes in quality extreme precision parts,” Schneider said.

“The company has a worldwide sales and service network. Tornos also has a showroom at 840 Parkview Boulevard in Lombard where customers can visit and get service support, engineering or view the different Tornos machines.”

520 Machinery has experienced strong demand for Tornos’ newest machine—The Tornos ST26—because it offers great value for a very competitive price.

“The Tornos ST26 offers customers good speed and tremendous value for the cost,” he said. The Swiss ST26 is known for its productivity, performance and accessibility when in comes to a high performance Swiss type lathe.

“Tornos differs from competitors by offering production solutions which increase the productivity of our customers rather than just one machine corresponding to one technical specification,” Schneider said. This approach rests on technical innovations, a machine design that minimizes operating costs and a particular focus on machine ergonomics to ensure ease of use for the operator.

Tornos primarily manufactures the following products:

• CNC single-spindle sliding headstock turning machines for parts less than 38 mm in diameter.

• Multi-spindle machines with numerical or cam control for parts up to 32 mm in diameter.

• Machining centers for complex parts 1 dm3 in volume requiring high precision.

Whether machining simple or highly complex parts, in small or large runs, Tornos machines guarantee reliability, high precision, optimized productivity and unbeatable competitiveness. These features combine to guarantee you a solution that meets your expectations.

“Technology is boosting production, and sparking a rise in machine-tool sales which is leading to demand for manufacturing jobs in this sector of the economy,” noted Schneider. 520 Machinery Sales also is the exclusive distributor of Doosan machine tools in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana.

The rebound in manufacturing employment in the Chicago area and Illinois also has created a corresponding boom in sales of machine-tool products, reports Elk Grove Village-based 520 Machinery Sales, LLC, one of the leading machine-tool sales organizations in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana.

Launched in 2009, the 520 Machinery has posted solid revenue growth over the past few years in the machine-tools industry. In 2011, marketing of new and pre-owned computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine-tool products skyrocketed to 332 units, and 520 Machinery’s revenue topped $17.5 million.

In 2010, the company sold 216 machine units (Both new and used) and machine tool accessories and posted volume of $7.98 million. A year earlier, 520 Machinery sold 60 units for $1.48 million.

“In the first eight months of 2012, we’ve already sold 265 machinery units and generated revenue of $15.1 million,” said Schneider. The sales growth sparked a move to expanded 6,000-square-foot offices and showroom at 1683 Elmhurst Road in Elk Grove Village.

520 Machinery Sales also offers machine repair service, parts support and engineering services to their customer base.

“Making machine-tool parts can be like creating jewelry or art. There is pride in the workmanship,” said Schneider, who noted that the company primarily markets machine tools to the job shop, automotive, medical, mining and construction manufacturing equipment, wind energy, hydraulics, guns and ordinance, aerospace and agriculture industries.

With decades of collective experience and thousands of professional contacts, the 520 Machinery Sales team includes owner/sales specialists Schneider, Everett Dahlberg and Dave Fahlgren along with 20 additional sales, administrative and service staff. The trio gained industry experience while working together at another Chicago-area machine-tool company.

U.S. manufacturing technology orders skyrocketed 92 percent in 2011 to a whopping $4.074 billion compared with 2010, according to a joint report by Association for Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors’ Association, which compiles data on domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment.

520 Machinery Sale’s 2011 sales success is part of the Midwest’s growth report for manufacturing technology orders, which zoomed 119.6 percent to $1.377 billion in 2011 compared with 2010.

520 Machinery Sales is known for its customer service and partnering with clients to help them grow their business. “Honesty, ethics and integrity” is the 520 Machinery Sales company credo.

“520 Machinery Sales is a humble, young company that already has earned a reputation in the machine-tool industry for hands-on customer service,” Schneider said.

520 Machinery Sales is the exclusive distributor for the Doosan Infracore line of vertical machining centers, horizontal machining centers and turning centers in northern Illinois and northwest Indiana.

“Doosan is a huge international company that few people really know about,” said Fahlgren.

According to Business Week magazine, Doosan was ranked fourth among the “World’s Best 40 Companies” in 2009. Doosan, originally a Korean-based company, manufactures a wide array of machine tools, ranging from two-axis turning lathes to million-dollar milling machines.

About half of 520 Machinery Sales’ business is in marketing pre-owned machine-tools. The company’s Pre-Owned Equipment Center specializes in the sale of used Daewoo, Doosan, Haas, Milltronics and Miyano CNC machine tools, and business of selling used machine tools is booming in today’s slowly rebounding economy.

“Our goal is to maximize our customer’s ability to make money by selling under-utilized CNC equipment,” said Dahlberg. The used equipment often is taken in trade, and either reconditioned or resold as-is. Like a used car, the “mileage,” or wear determines the resale price.

520 Machinery Sales appraises pre-owned machine tool equipment for top dollar and acts as a seller’s broker, negotiating to get the best resale price for the equipment. Used machinery stays in place and is shown to prospective buyers on-site. Sometimes under-used equipment is leased to a potential buyer and sold later.

“We strive towards making a fair deal for the seller of the machine tool as well as the buyer,” said Dahlberg.

Despite the business prosperity underway in machine-tool sales industry in 2012, industry experts say a staffing problem is developing. Companies currently are unable to find enough qualified employees for programming, setup and operation of CNC machines.

As a result, 520 Machinery Sales is working with Chicago-based Symbol Job Training Inc. and Rockford-based Techworks to provide students with the educational skills they need for programming, setup and operation of Doosan machines.

The educational organization works on building partnerships between businesses and students while providing hands-on training and education in the field of computer numerical controlled machine-tool products, according to Tom Peters, Training Director of Business Operations for Symbol Job Training.

With the local and national unemployment rate is gradually improving, manufacturers and other machine-tool companies are looking to hire more skilled computer-engineering talent from schools and other Chicago-area educational institutions.

“Local technical high schools should encourage the introduction of computer classes that teach the engineering of machine-tool programming and development,” urged Schneider. “These high-paying white-collar engineering jobs are needed in today’s economy.”

Emphasizing American manufacturing is “about brains, not brawn,” Schneider said workers need the education and training to operate in today’s computerized, high-skilled industries.

For more information on 520 Machinery LLC, or to purchase a new or pre-owned machine-tool equipment, please call 888-520-1768 or visit www.520Machinery.com.