In Moutier, Switzerland, at about the same time, the Tornos Company and the later acquired firms of Bechler and Petermann began the design and production of the machinery that could turn out the intricate parts needed for watch making, fast, and with the critical tolerances that were required.
Over time the three companies merged into Tornos-Bechler, which became a world leader in the production of what is now known as "Swiss-type" high-precision turning automatics.
Throughout the ensuing years, Tornos-Bechler built and sold a long series of cam-controlled automatics in a wide variety of types and models. There are over 40,000 Tornos automatics still in operation worldwide today.
In 1942, the highly popular M-7 Series was first introduced.
In 1960, the company developed multispindle automatics.
Decade after decade, Tornos continued to be a technological leader in the industry with a proliferation of new features and attachments, such as automatic bar loaders, to its automatics.
Then in the 90s, Tornos embarked on an aggressive research and renewal program.
The research and restructuring paid off. In 1996, the company unveiled its DECO 2000 single spindle, sliding headstock automatic, a truly revolutionary machine. It was the first ever computer controlled automatic that could match and even exceed the speeds of the fastest cam-operated machines.
The DECO 2000 duplicates the cam machine advantages of reliability, speed and productivity and adds the flexibility, versatility and precision advantages of CNC. Further, with its exclusive and patented PNC (parallel numerical control) system run with its own TB-DECO programming software, this new machine design produces most parts twice as fast as any other CNC Swiss-type automatic. The single spindle version was so successful in the market, that in 1997, the company introduced the first MultiDECO machine, applying the same technology to a multispindle automatic.
The company has enjoyed remarkable success by answering a need in the small turned parts market. Most of the sales are from repeat customers, which speaks volumes of the DECO 2000s acceptance and practical application.
