Over 595 visitors attend Seco’s ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ Open House in September – making it the most well attended event in the company’s history.

 Seco Tools (UK) has reported that its recently-held ‘Inspiration through Innovation’ Open House (21st – 22nd September 2016) broke all previous records (by some distance), with just under 600 visitors attending the event over the two days.

Widely promoted as being one of the UK’s premier advanced manufacturing best-practice events, the Open House, held at Seco’s state-of-the-art Technology Centre in Alcester, had something for everyone and, judging by the high visitor numbers, certainly captured the imagination of UK and Irish manufacturers…Seco’s primary target audience.

Now in its third year, this year’s event included:

  • Fifteen challenging and demanding machining demonstrations using innovative and advanced machine tools, tooling technologies, CAD/CAM software, work-holding solutions and metal working fluids etc;
  • Eight cutting-edge, best-practice Seminars with a common focus on Industry 4.0 and its implications for manufacturers;
  • Over 40 machine tool builder, CAD/CAM, work-holding, metrology, tooling, cutting fluid and automation Technical Partners – each showcasing their latest products, services and solutions.

The event, naturally, was used by Seco to demonstrate a number of its own recent business and product solutions and innovations.

Of particular interest to visitors in Seco’s Business Solutions’ Zone were the company’s web-based MY PAGES portal (that allows Seco customers fast and direct access to product information, cutting data and test reports), and SUGGEST – Seco’s optimised product search facility accessed via the MY PAGES portal.

In Seco’s Product Solutions’ Zone, the company showcased a range of new and/or recently-introduced tooling solutions that included Seco’s High-Feed milling range of cutters; its Duratomic insert technology and its range of Shrinkfit tool holders…to name but a few.

Commented Mike Fleming, Seco’s Sales & Marketing Manager “We were delighted by the commitment and response from our Technical Partners. Last year’s event was supported by 30 Technical Partners. This year that number rose to over 40 Partners…proving that Inspiration through Innovation has become a ‘must attend event.”

Further evidence of the popularity and pulling power of the event (amongst Partners) was highlighted by Mr Rob Lightfoot, from CAD/CAM specialist CGTech, who exhibited at this year’s event for the first time. Says Mr Lightfoot “Last year Seco held a really good show – and we weren’t there. So, we thought this year we really must attend. It was a similar situation with Open Mind – a company that also exhibited for the first time this year”.

Says Simon Docker, Sales Manager at Open Mind “We were really excited about being involved in this year’s event. Exhibiting at Inspiration through Innovation has not only enhanced our partnership relationships with Seco, it also provided a great opportunity to meet and show our latest innovations to existing customers and prospects.”

The final word regarding this year’s Inspiration through Innovation comes from Richard Jelfs, Seco’s Managing Director, who opened the event on 21st September and delivered a typically passionate and inspiring address on the morning of the first day, to an assembled group of Technical Partners.

Concludes Richard Jelfs “Our objective with Inspiration through Innovation has always been to create an inspiring and practical event that is truly customer-focused and that demonstrates to visitors and partners alike that significant improvements in productivity, quality and performance are best achieved through collaboration and by sharing best practice. This year we wanted the event to be bigger and better than previous Open Houses. We invited more Technical Partners to become involved…we increased the number of machining demonstrations and made sure they were more innovative, more challenging and, as a consequence, more appealing…and we ensured that our best-practice seminars were even more relevant and incisive by focusing them on a contemporary, highly relevant issue. The latest feedback from this year’s event, from visitors, Technical Partners and the media demonstrates that we achieved our objective and dramatically exceeded our own expectations.”