Mazak’s DISCOVER 2025: Drive Results with Innovation
Mazak Corp. held its DISCOVER 2025 event in Florence, Ky., October 6-10, highlighting machine tool innovation and automation. “We help today’s manufacturers plan for tomorrow with new ways to integrate automation and with innovations that truly drive results,” said Dan Janka, president, Mazak Corp., at a media briefing on Tuesday morning.
True to the theme of “Drive Results with Innovation” the event featured a lineup of speakers and panel presentations geared to provide ideas and insights for attendees from throughout North America. And with more than 30 machines on display, DISCOVER featured the broadest display of machine tools with live demos in one location, within the U.S. in 2025. Production managers, CEOs, and operations directors from manufacturers across North America had the opportunity to speak directly with automation experts about how the latest advances can solve their greatest challenges.
Janka pointed out how the National Technology Center would spotlight live cutting demonstrations, digital technologies and provide access to industry experts to answer questions from customers and visitors to the event.
The demonstration areas focused on four action areas that concentrated on: advanced machining and manufacturing; multitasking; high-volume production; and job shop solutions.
One of the machines on display was the highly anticipated QRX-50MSY CNC turning center. The machine provides manufacturers the speed and versatility for high-volume production of small, intricate parts in a compact, affordable machine. The QRX-50MSY’s combination of milling capability, second turning spindle and Y-axis functionality with advanced technology, productivity and value delivers exceptional performance for shops machining small parts such as EV input shafts, mid-shafts, valve fittings and other components exceeding 2″ in diameter.
Among its features, the QRX-50MSY is equipped with a work unloader over the top of the second spindle that shops can equip with a gripper or parts bucket to remove parts from the machine. An auto parts catcher mounted on the lower turret catches parts at the second spindle head, or positioned beneath the main spindle, it can also accommodate end-of-bar remnants.
Mazak also unveiled the INTEGREX i-350S NEO Multi-Tasking Machine. Building on the company’s proven DONE-IN-ONE® concept, this new generation machine combines high-performance turning, milling, and — now for the first time — grinding capabilities in a single setup, ensuring maximum productivity and accuracy.
During the event, Mazak demonstrated how manufacturers can achieve exacting tolerances and superior surface finishes with the ability to machine and grind parts simultaneously. This combination of operations significantly reduces lead times, minimizes handling, and improves overall process reliability — key advantages for competitive manufacturers.
“Once again, we’ve taken multitasking an entire step further,” Janka said. “Our new Integrex i-350S NEO will be vital to aerospace, defense, and other high-tolerance, precision-focused shops, because it delivers multi-tasking with the addition of grinding. This was feedback we heard time and time again from the marketplace and we’ve now delivered.”
Other machines making their debut included the VTC-Ez 25 and the VTC-Ez 30. “Among the easy turning machines and vertical machining centers paired with custom automation, I’m excited to announce that we’re debuting the newest members of the EZ family,” Janka noted. “These vertical traveling column machines feature fixed tables and provide extreme machining stability along with ample access travels and heavy load capacities. With an added center divider, shops can set the machine cables up with multiple smaller parts as a substitute for two pallet changing capability.”
Corporate Achievements and iSmart Factory
At a media briefing on Tuesday morning, Mazak’s officials shared how they are moving past the economic distractions to focus on helping shops of all sizes reduce production costs and increase output. “Moving past all the distractions, locking out the noise, and staying the course, DISCOVER 2025 is focused on our shared drive for results,” Janka said. “The results that keep production costs in check, allow manufacturers to finish ahead of the competition and accelerate their business growth. Now is the time that U.S. manufacturers can drive results with Mazak innovation.”
DISCOVER 2025 also presented the opportunity to celebrate corporate milestones. “This year we marked a huge milestone,” Janka added regarding machine tool production in Kentucky. “We celebrated the completion of our 40,000th machine built here in Kentucky. We’ve been producing high-precision machines here in northern Kentucky since 1974. And last year marked another significant production milestone when we celebrated our 50th anniversary producing here in North America.”
Janka also pointed out that since the start of operations in Kentucky, Mazak has expanded the facility and campus 20 times. “We’re getting ready for our 21st expansion,” he said. “And as this facility has grown; it continually has contributed to the economic vitality of both the state of Kentucky and the local area while reinforcing the fact that world-class machine tools are still being produced here in America.”
Visitors to DISCOVER were able to experience first-hand the production of the world-class machine tools with guided tours of the Mazak iSmart Production Factory. Mazak’s Ryan Povkov and Mitchell Reis led media and others on tours of the production facility, where attendees witnessed ‘Mazaks making Mazaks.’
The 518,320-sq.-ft.-facility on Mazak’s nearly 1-million sq.-ft.-manufacturing campus produces many of Mazak’s most popular machine models, including its QUICK TURN Series machines, VTC Series machines and Ez Series of turning and milling centers, and is home to the company’s U.S. manufacturing technology R&D efforts. (The Kentucky manufacturing campus is also home to the company’s Spindle Repair & Rebuild Department. Its Parts Center stocks more than $90 million worth of inventory.)
Mazak designated the facility as an iSmart Factory because it fuses advanced manufacturing cells and systems together with full digital integration to achieve free-flow data sharing in terms of process control and operation monitoring. At the facility, the company manufactures industry-leading Multi-Tasking machines, 3-, 4-, and 5-axis Vertical Machining Centers, 2-, and 3-axis Turning Centers and Swiss-style machines, along with Hot Wire Deposition and Friction Stir Welding enabled machines.
“Pretty much if we can manufacture it here, we are going to do it,” Povkov said. “Especially now more than ever with the import costs and the tariffs and things like that.”
Povkov said the manufacturer takes material and lasers it, bends it, welds it, grinds it, powder coats it, paints it, etc.
Mazak is also exploring an alternative way to build the bases for its machine tools, with an alternative to cast iron, which involves high dampening composite casts. “It allows us to pour lines inside the mold so they can inlay all the internal lines, like coolant lines, and pour everything around it so you don’t have to machine the casting,” Povkov noted. “This material eliminates thermal growth, and vibration is “pretty much non-existent.” Both are crucial to the production of high-tolerance production of parts on high-precision machine tools.
The main manufacturer of this material for castings is located an hour-and-a-half away from Florence in Ohio. The use of this material in bases for the machines is limited at this time. “Personally, I think in the future we will see more castings like this due to the benefits,” Povkov said.
The DISCOVER 2025 event definitely offered attendees new ways to plan for tomorrow by embracing automation and innovations that will drive results. “We honor our responsibility to the industry by ensuring DISCOVER directly reflects the trajectory of manufacturing,” Janka noted. “As manufacturers across North America navigate a highly competitive and rapidly evolving landscape, Mazak serves as a partner that delivers innovation and demonstrates how to put it into action.”
During the Mazak DISCOVER 2025 event in Florence, Ky., Mazak’s Fredy Alvarez outlines products made in the Mazak QT Ez-12 Turning Center, which is designed to give shops of all sizes affordable access to Mazak machine performance and reliability. The QT-Ez Series machines allow for easy automation integration, and pairs with bar feeders as well as the Ez LOADER for lights-out production capability.
