Manufacturing news - October 2025

Technical Center to open in Phoenix

PHOTOS COURTESY OF RESPECTIVE COMPANIES

Mazak Corp. is expanding its service and support network in the western United States with the opening of its new Phoenix Technical Center, scheduled for later in 2025. The facility will provide local manufacturers across industries with access to process and application engineering expertise, training, and collaboration opportunities for new manufacturing solutions development.

The technical center houses call centers, applications engineers, and sales and service support personnel. It also provides space for customer programming classes, machine demonstrations, test cuts, and machining system run-offs, as well as regularly scheduled Mazak DISCOVER events.

“Mazak continues to establish new facilities to further ensure customers receive the local service and support they need,” says Dan Janka, president of Mazak Corp. “For the Phoenix area, our new Technical Center will play a key role in that strategy and will center on the manufacturing needs of the area’s key industrial sectors that include semiconductor, aerospace and defense, electronics, and several others.”

Mazak’s service and support network includes its Technical Centers along with eight Technology Centers that work closely with manufacturers and focus on their specific area’s major industries. The Phoenix Technical Center is the company’s sixth in North America. https://www.mazak.com

Appointments, promotions, new hires

Jeffrey Leeman has joined BIG DAISHOWA as sales engineer for the Southeast region. He will be responsible for sales and support in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Leeman has a strong leadership background from his service in the United States Marine Corps, as well as hands-on experience in CNC machining and tooling coordination. https://www.bigdaishowa.com

Brandon Faulkner has been hired in the newly created role of Eastern U.S. sales manager for Dart Controls. He’ll work with distributors, sales channel partners, and customers to better facilitate the sales of Dart’s full range of products, which include variable speed motor drives, controls, and accessories for electric motors. Faulkner, who holds a BASc in Marketing & Management from Bryant & Stratton College, has extensive experience managing sales channels for industrial manufacturers and will oversee Dart’s sales activity east of the Mississippi River. https://www.dartcontrols.com

Doug Kirby has been appointed sales engineer for Tri-Mer Corp. Kirby has worked for Tri-Mer for 12 years and served as production manager since 2017. In his new role, he will manage projects for several of the company’s largest customers in the semiconductor and alloy manufacturing sectors. https://tri-mer.com

Okuma America Corp. has appointed Dominick Patriarca to the new role of senior vice president of corporate strategy. Prior to joining Okuma, Patriarca held strategic management positions at Gleason Corp., manufacturer of gear systems and technologies, and Lincoln Electric, an industrial machinery and automation company. In addition to his extensive experience in industrial manufacturing, Patriarca holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. https://www.okuma.com

Global sales partnership

DMG MORI and OPEN MIND Technologies have entered a global sales agreement. Both companies have established local affiliates in the Asian market which will support global cooperation for each region. TECHNIUM CO., a DMG MORI company and Japanese provider of software solutions, education, and e-commerce, will coordinate with the partners’ local entities to boost sales across Asia.

TECHNIUM has also been collaborating with OPEN MIND Technologies Japan for the past 10 years, and in early 2025 their U.S. organizations began working together. The next phase will focus on expanding in the Asian and Australian markets.

DMG MORI and OPEN MIND will jointly promote OPEN MIND’s hyperMILL CAD/CAM software solution. https://us.dmgmori.com; https://www.openmind-tech.com