In the manufacturing field, high-precision and miniaturization have aggressively been pursued as pressing requirements for many components of automobiles and electric appliances, but machine tools used to machine such components remain large in size. There is a growing demand for “miniaturization of machine tools to fit the sizes of workpieces with a view to maximize energy and space efficiency used in machine shop. In response to the market requirements of major manufacturers of automobile components for “machine tools of width ten times machining diameters of object workpieces,” we have developed ultra slim CNC lathes which can machine object workpieces to an equivalent degree to conventional types of machine tools, and can also be adapted to automatically carry-in-and-out of workpieces. The intent of this paper is to describe the developmental background, overview the characteristics, space-saving and energy saving effects, and future plans of the newly developed lathe.

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