Houston is the site of Mazak Corporation's future Southwest Technology Center and Regional Headquarters. The facility will offer support to manufacturers in all industries, with a special focus on those serving the energy sector. Construction was planned to begin in July on the 30,000-square-foot technology center being erected on 4.5 acres at the intersection of Beltway 8 and Green Crossing Boulevard. The facility will be Mazak's third and largest expansion of its existing Southwest Technology Center, which was originally founded in 1978.

"Throughout the economy of the past two years, Mazak has consistently been a vocal advocate of continued investment in American manufacturing," says Brian Papke, president of Mazak. "It's something we encourage our customers to do and something we do ourselves. We've seen a lot of companies scale back their investment levels over the past several years. We fully understand there may be economic reasons to do so, but we believe that it is an important time to invest in order to be competitive in the future.

"Additionally, we recognize the growing importance of creating machine tools that are not only more productive, but that are also energy efficient and environmentally sound. This new facility will be a place where we can work together with our customers to address and develop improvements in all of these critical areas."

The size of the Southwest Technology Center being built will allow for cutting demonstrations, service and applications support for some of Mazak's largest machining centers. It will serve as a regional service hub, staffed with 20 field service engineers and five phone support engineers.

A 100-seat learning and conference area will be housed at the facility for meetings, regional seminars and training events presented by both Mazak and its suppliers in the industry. Mazak anticipates a grand opening in June 2011 where a range of products will demonstrate various applications.