GF AgieCharmilles to Become GF Machining Solutions

Effective January 1, 2014, GF AgieCharmilles (Lincolnshire, IL) will become GF Machining Solutions, a name change that underscores that Georg Fischer AG (GF) is a unified company with three divisions. GF AgieCharmilles has grown to offer one of the industry’s most diverse portfolios, including milling, EDM, laser texturing, spindles, tooling, automation and customer services. The new name emphasizes the company’s role as a total solutions provider.

By changing its brand identity, the company also communicates its role as an extension of its customers’ expertise and capacity, and conveys GF’s customer-centric mission. Descriptive and easy to remember, the GF Machining Solutions name reflects how the company’s evolution has made it far more than a supplier of machine tools.

“The GF AgieCharmilles name is intimately linked to our leadership in the field of EDM technology,” said Glynn Fletcher, president of GF Machining Solutions Americas. “While EDM remains a vital part of our company, we have grown to offer a much more comprehensive portfolio of products and services. This change communicates to the market what our customers already know: that we offer world-class, comprehensive solutions for every aspect of their operations.”

The change in name will not affect the terms of existing agreements with customers, and the names of the company’s legal entities will remain the same. Due to their rich history and high recognizability in the market, the AgieCharmilles, Mikron, Step-Tec and System 3R product names will still be used within the umbrella of the GF Machining Solutions portfolio. A new product naming system is in development and will be introduced during the first half of 2014.

In addition to the name change, a new design style will be implemented for the GF Machining Solutions website, sales literature and other external communications. This new design conveys the diversity, unity and innovation that are keystones of GF Machining Solutions’ relationships with its customers.

To simplify the transition for customers, the change of email and web addresses will be transparent and GF AgieCharmilles email addresses will continue to be active through December 2014. Beginning in January 2014, the current company website will automatically redirect to a new URL. There will be no changes to telephone numbers.

www.gfac.com