Q: Who is Phoenix?

A. Phoenix, Inc., a privately held company, is an industry leader and innovator in the area of customized heavy machine tool manufacturing and remanufacturing. This combination of remanufactured and new machinery puts Phoenix, Inc. in the unique position of providing its customers with the most cost-effective machine tool solutions possible.

Phoenix Inc. provides cost-effective machine tool solutions through experience, innovation and engineering.

Q: What markets does Phoenix serve?

A. Any market where large machine tools are required to make precision parts. These include aerospace, power generation, off-highway vehicles, pumps, valves for public works, and other heavy equipment manufacturing.

Q: What is Phoenix’s history?

A. The company was founded in 1969 as G.M. Industries, a manufacturer of small machine tools, under the leadership of Robert Fuller, Sr. Over time, the company became involved in rebuilding specialized equipment at the request of some of its best and most trusting customers. When sons Robert and Steve Fuller took over the business in 1988, they re-evaluated the company’s strengths and corresponding market opportunities. In light of the company’s strong custom engineering experience, exceptional working relationships with customers and the absence of large machine tool builders in the United States, the brothers dedicated all of the assets of the company to manufacturing and re-manufacturing large, specialized, precision machine tools.

Q: What is the difference between “rebuilding” and “remanufacturing” as practiced by Phoenix?

A. Much of the cost of acquiring a large machine tool is literally sunk into the machine base and foundation. If you rebuild an existing machine, you can avoid these costs and get a machine that is as good as when it was new. If you then remanufacture the same machine by redesigning some of the mechanisms for simplicity, reliability and increased functionality and add the latest control technology, you will have a machine that not only is better than when it was new but also costs much less than the latest equipment available. That’s what we do best at Phoenix.

Q: What types of equipment does Phoenix remanufacture?

A. We will remanufacture large specialized machine tools of all sorts. Some recent remanufactured machines include:

• Airfoil/Turbine Blade Mills
• Bridge and Gantry Style Machines
• Creep Feed Grinders
• Cylindrical Grinders
• Horizontal Boring Mills
• Vertical Boring Mills
• Horizontal Lathes
• Milling Machines
• Vertical Grinders
• Gear Hobbing/Gashing Machines
• Custom Manufactured Machinery. (e.g., four-spindle, five-axis machines for an aircraft engine manufacturer. Fifteen machines were rotated one at time out of production and into re-manufacturing to completely modernize this operation.)

Q: What new products does Phoenix currently manufacture?

A. Phoenix designed and manufactured systems include:

• Vertical Turning and Milling Machines. Users get the benefit of an advanced, ultra-stable design along with cost and performance advantages of fully computer-engineered standard components.
• “Slant Mills” (modular bridge style milling machines.) State-of-the-art engineering software such as solid modeling and finite element analysis has allowed the evolution of this special product into a true modular machine design. The slant bridge design can be equipped with various headstocks and table configurations specifically tailored to individual application requirements.
• Turbine Blade/Airfoil Mills. The Phoenix four-spindle, five-axis airfoil mill, based on our slant bridge design, is the turbine blade industry’s most cost-effective airfoil milling machine.
• Specialty and Creep Feed Grinders. Improving upon existing designs, Phoenix’s mid-range creep feed grinders offer a cost-effective alternative to this expensive manufacturing technology.
• Customized Ultra-Rigid Vertical Grinders (to be introduced in 2000).

Q: Why should I buy a new machine tool from Phoenix?

A. Before we designed our first machine tool we were fortunate enough to have the experience of re-engineering and remanufacturing hundreds of our competitors’ machines. From first-hand experience we knew what worked and what didn’t. We had the benefit of strong relationships with customers who told us how they wanted their equipment to perform. They were, in effect, our design partners. We also knew where to outsource our components when required. Frequently these manufacturing resources are our own customers who make large machine parts on machinery Phoenix has remanufactured.

There would be no constraints on our mechanical designs based on what we had done for decades previously. On the other hand, many of the mechanical components and control concepts were already part of our design portfolio. So we took the best of both worlds — new machine designs incorporating the best available mechanical and electronics equipment and our own modular design to facilitate customization of each machine for the specific manufacturing requirement.

Since we compete only in this one specialized niche, we have made new Phoenix machine tools world-class, cost/performance leaders.

Q: What do customers like best about Phoenix?

A. Phoenix recently commissioned a survey of its customers to determine their level of satisfaction. Customers consistently rated Phoenix good to excellent in the categories of product quality, engineering expertise and customer support. Specific comments from more than one customer included:

• High level of management interest and involvement in the customer’s product.
• Minimal problems in debugging new and remanufactured equipment at installation.
• Remanufactured systems were re-engineered for greater simplicity and greater long-term reliability.
• When they remanufactured our machines, Phoenix listened to our performance requirements and gave us more of what we needed.
• Exceptional expertise in integrating powerful controllers with mechanical equipment. Made full use of the controller’s functionality.
• New equipment designed for simplicity, reliability, and high performance.
• Could not buy comparable new equipment for less than two to three times the price of a new Phoenix machine.

Q: Does Phoenix have enough capacity to handle my needs?

A. Yes. With the completion of a new, high bay addition, the Phoenix facility, located in Seekonk, Massachusetts, encompasses 35,000 square feet. The newly expanded assembly area includes a small machine bay with overhead crane capacity of 10 tons, and two large machine bays with overhead crane capacity of 20 tons and 35 tons. The total assembly area will be capable of handling 18 machines of varying sizes and weights. The largest machine manufactured in this facility to date weighed approximately 350,000 lbs.

In addition to increased manufacturing space and upgraded systems, the company has installed a new integrated software system and added personnel to accommodate sales which have more than doubled in three years.