It seems everyone in the industry claims to offer machining controls that are powerful, flexible and precise. Claims are one thing; truth is another.

Customers are facing pressure today to reduce cost at all levels. The focus is lean manufacturing because there are no guarantees anymore. To be competitive, a user must be in control of all the key process steps, not just tool path and feed rate.

Choosing the appropriate control process is perhaps the most important decision a user can make. 

But with all the manufacturers making identical claims, how is one to know which set of controls is right? By considering the following:

1. The power and flexibility of machining controls. In addition to robust motion control capability, a viable control system must allow the shop to select the programming method that makes the most sense for that particular job: conversational (shop floor) or NC programming with CAM compatibility. Each has its benefits in the everyday job shop environment. Find a system that has everything covered.
2. Process Automation. Time is money. The controls you invest in should be powerful enough to save you significant amounts of programming time and manual process steps.
3. The ergonomic design of the control. Many controls are a mind-boggling myriad of buttons. On the other hand, Hurco's control was designed with the user in mind. If you're going to use the control every day of your career, it should be comfortable and easy to use.

Taking these elements into consideration, only one system covers all three bases equally well. And that is the Hurco control. Exclusively.

Hurco’s UltiMax control got its name by being the ultimate in power and the maximum in simplicity. Its ergonomic design has easy-to-understand buttons. The slim, touch-screen, color monitor makes every programming task almost effortless.

The control system comes in two basic formats, with single or dual-screen display. Either way, it's the same underlying software. With the interactive graphics, simply touch the portion of the part you want to edit and the control takes you right to the corresponding portion of code – whether you’re using conversational or NC programming.

What Hurco’s control has done for machining centers, it now does for lathes. All of the simplicity of the unique Hurco conversational programming is now perfectly suited for turning centers.