CNC Brand Profile

Amada: From One Salvaged Lathe to the World's First NC Turret Punch

If your shop bends or cuts sheet metal, there is a good chance an Amada is doing some of it. The company behind it started with one secondhand lathe and a band saw designed from catalogs. Here is how Amada got from there to the press brake on your floor, and what to check on a used one.

Amada at a Glance

One Lathe in Tokyo

Amada began the way a lot of shops do: one person and one machine. According to the company, Isamu Amada opened a small repair shop in Toshima, Tokyo, in 1946, working on a lathe left over from a munitions factory that had burned in the war. Amada describes it simply: the story begins with a single lathe.

The shop grew from one person to three, then four. Isamu Amada's brother-in-law, Ryuharu Emori, joined and later became chairman. In 1948 the business became a limited partnership, and in 1964 it took the name Amada Co., Ltd.

A Band Saw From a Catalog

The first thing Amada built for itself was a saw. The Shashi, a Japanese site that compiles corporate histories, says Isamu Amada learned that the occupation forces cut metal with band saws and set out to make them in Japan. With no money to buy an imported machine to study, it says, he designed his own from foreign catalogs and patent documents.

Amada dates its first vertical band saw, a contour machine, to 1955, and its first horizontal cut-off saws to 1956. Saws are still part of the business today, through Amada Machinery America in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Selling Off the Back of a Truck

Here's the part most fabricators never think about: Amada's reach in sheet metal started with how it sold machines, not just how it built them.

In 1960, the company says, it began selling with demonstration cars, loading a machine onto a truck and driving it to the customer. By the mid-1960s it had moved from agents to a direct sales system. Our read: that habit of putting its own people in front of the customer is a big part of why Amada service and Amada-trained technicians are easy to find today, which matters when you buy one used.

Press Brakes and the First NC Turret Punch

Amada moved into sheet metal in 1965. That year, the company says, it signed a technical agreement with France's Promecam Sisson-Lehmann and began building press brakes, starting with the RG series. In 1986 Amada bought Promecam outright, and it became Amada's European arm.

Then came the machine that, by Amada's account, created a new market. In 1971 it launched the Amada LYLA-555, which the company calls the world's first NC turret punch press. In Japan the turret punch became common enough to get its own nickname, tarepan. That same year Amada set up its first U.S. company, a technology development subsidiary in Seattle.

Lasers and Robots

The firsts kept coming, by Amada's own count. In 1980 it announced the LASMAC-644, which it calls Japan's first CO2 laser machine, and set up the California company that is now Amada America. In 1988 it announced the BM-100, which it calls the world's first bending robot, and in 1989 it launched the Vipros series of low-vibration hydraulic turret punches.

Fiber came next. In 2010, Amada says, it became the first machinery manufacturer to develop its own fiber laser oscillator, and in 2014 it launched the ENSIS fiber lasers, built around its own beam control technology. Today the company counts about 90 group companies and more than 8,000 employees, with production in Japan, Europe, North America and China.

Built in America Too

Amada's U.S. footprint goes back to that 1971 Seattle office. Amada America, which grew from the 1980 California company, is based in Buena Park, California. Amada opened a manufacturing plant in Brea, California, in 2013 and a second plant in High Point, North Carolina, in 2019, and it says both build sheet metal fabrication machines.

On Our Floor

We have eight Amada machines on our floor, from press brakes to lasers:

2017 Amada HG-1003-ATC CNC Press Brake, the press brake with the automatic tool changer. We covered it in detail in our HG-1003 Meet the Machine.
2012 Amada LC3015F1-NT CNC CO2 Laser Cutting Machine.
2006 Amada MP1225NJ Loading/Unloading System.
2005 Amada Quatto 1kW CNC CO2 Laser Cutting Machine.
2004 Amada HFE80-25 80-Ton CNC Press Brake.
2000 Amada RG-1030LD 110-Ton x 10' CNC Press Brake.
1998 Amada Vipros-255 CNC Turret Punch.
1997 Amada RG-80-EX-II CNC Press Brake.

That is three generations of Amada bending, from the RG to the HG, plus the turret punch and laser lines that made the company's name. Confirm specs, condition and availability with our team before you buy.

What to Check on a Used Amada

Press brakes: check the ram for parallelism and the bed for crowning, and test the backgauge on every axis for repeatability. On hydraulic models, look for cylinder seal leaks and a smooth, steady ram speed. On ATC models, cycle the tool changer through a full setup.

Turret punches: index through every station and check alignment. Look for station wear and slug pulling, and on hydraulic Vipros machines, check the hydraulic unit for leaks.

CO2 lasers: ask for the resonator hours and the condition of the mirrors and lenses, since optics and resonator work are the expensive part. Test the shuttle table and any loader.

Every machine: confirm the control boots and runs a program, and that parts and service are still available for that generation.

From Repair Shop to Fab Floor

Amada started with a secondhand lathe and a saw drawn from catalogs. It sold machines off the back of a truck, put its name on the first NC turret punch and built a service network to match. That is the reason an older Amada is still worth buying: the parts, the tooling and the people who know the machine are still out there.

Resell CNC Take

A used Amada is one of the safest buys in fabrication because the support never left. On a press brake, buy the ram and the backgauge, not the year. On a CO2 laser, buy the resonator hours. Get those right and an older Amada will keep bending parts for years.

Frequently Asked Questions