Hone-All Squeezes Leads From MACH 2016 With the dust settling on MACH 2016 and exhibitors frantically chasing through their sales leads, Hone-All Precision Ltd has somewhat more mixed feelings on the event. Despite being a successful show for the Leighton Buzzard company, it was truly a case of making lemonade from lemons for the subcontract manufacturer. As Hone-All Director, Andrea Rodney says: "Overall, MACH 2016 yielded more enquiries than MACH 2014, but we had to work a lot harder for these sales leads. This was down to the poor location of the 'UK Manufacturing Zone' that was tucked away at the back of the hall and was very poorly marketed by the show organisers. We are extremely proud to be a successful UK Manufacturer, but we also need the wider industry and the MTA to be proud of us, acknowledge our efforts and showcase our capabilities more prominently in future." And the lemonade… Every exhibition has a negative, and this was surely it for Hone-All and many of the other subcontract businesses in the 'UK Manufacturing Zone'. Despite the underlying discontent for certain factors about MACH 2016, Hone-All was predominantly pleased with the overall event, as Andrea continues: "The over-riding factor was that MACH was better attended and more positive than people expected. Furthermore, with the large machine tool companies having a great show and selling large quantities of machine tools; it brings the confidence factor back that has been ebbing away in recent months in the wake of an underperforming oil & gas sector and the clouds that have loomed over the UK steel industry. Its extremely positive for so many subcontractors and OEMs to be buying plant at the show, as this gives the whole industry the 'shot-in-the-arm' that it needed." On a more personal note, the leads generated by Hone-All were a direct result of the company enforcing the message about its new capabilities and capacity that has arrived through its investment in new deep hole boring technology. As well as educating the market as to why it should be investing in Hone-All's unique subcontract service, the subcontractor also put great emphasis on the additional capacity of its two new TIBO Tiefbohrtechnik deep hole boring machines that were acquired in 2015. This 'niche' technology combined with their large capacity roller manufacture and gun-drilling capability was undoubtedly sought after by many visitors to MACH 2016. The two machines have increased capacity and extended Hone-All's maximum boring capacity to 250mm with a length of 3.1m; making the new machines the perfect complement to the company's 4m turning capacity.